Interfacing with a benefits administration domain model

ABSTRACT

In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a human resource management platform that includes applications targeted to solve a variety of human resource and benefits administration management problems. Applications of the human resource management platform include business applications such as benefits administration that may provide a single solution for facilitating employee benefits management and organizational efficiencies through automation of benefit management functions, measurement of benefit provider effectiveness, and the like.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/290,466, filed on May 29, 2014, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/290,466is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/579,985, filedon Oct. 15, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/579,985 claims the benefitof the following provisional applications, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety: U.S. Prov. Appl. 61/105,593,filed Oct. 15, 2008 and U.S. Prov. Appl. 61/105,615, filed Oct. 15,2008.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The inventive methods and systems described herein generally relate tohuman capital management and particularly relate to a scalable platformfor enterprise level human capital management including performance,compensation, benefits, and the like.

2. Description of the Related Art

Human resource management systems must provide support for diverseapplications such as compensation planning and execution, performanceappraisal and management, alignment of compensation and performance,benefits administration, benefits user self service, and the like. Thereexists a need for a scalable human resource management system thatfacilitates the effective application of these services to a wide rangeof entity sizes, structures, and business processes while ensuring ahigh degree of configurability and client data separation for use ondistributed, networked computing environments.

SUMMARY

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems comprising a userinterface for interacting with the applications in accordance withvarious embodiments of the present invention are provided. The systemsmay include a persistence layer for storing a benefits administrationdomain model; a business logic layer comprising the domain model; aplurality of employee benefits management applications; and apresentation layer comprising a user interface for interacting with theapplications. The methods may include storing a benefits administrationdomain model in a persistence layer of a human capital platform;manipulating domain objects of the domain model with employee benefitsmanagement applications; configuring the benefits managementapplications within a business logic layer of the platform; andpresenting a user interface for facilitating user interaction with theapplications using a presentation layer of the platform.

In the aspect of the invention, the domain model may comprise domainobjects representing employee benefits information. In the aspect of theinvention, the domain model may also comprise domain objectsrepresenting employee information and employee benefits information.

In the aspect of the invention, the plurality of applications mayinclude an employee benefits enrollment application, an employeebeneficiary and dependent maintenance application, an employee lifeevent application, an administration application, an input fileapplication, an output file application, a reporting application, orsome other type of application.

In the aspect of the invention, the plurality of applications may alsoinclude an employee benefits application. In the aspect of theinvention, the employee benefits application may further includeemployee self-service and administrator self-service.

In the aspect of the invention, the plurality of applications may alsoinclude benefit eligibility applications, enrollment applications, orsome other type of applications.

In the aspect of the invention, the persistence layer may include adatabase for storing the benefits administration domain model,synchronization facilities for updating the domain model, and the like.In the aspect of the invention, updating the domain model may includebulk updating of the domain model.

In the aspect of the invention, the persistence layer may also includesecurity for limiting access to the database. In the aspect of theinvention, the security may allow a plurality of independentlyaccessible domain models to be stored in the database. In the aspect ofthe invention, the independently accessible domain models may be storedin separate schemas.

In the aspect of the invention, the user may be an employee, a benefitsadministrator, or the like.

In the aspect of the invention, the benefits administration applicationsmay include an employee benefits application that includes employeeself-service and administrator self-service features that are accessiblevia the user interface. In the aspect of the invention, the benefitsadministration applications may also include benefit eligibilityapplications, enrollment applications, and the like.

In the aspect of the invention, the benefits administration model may bestored in a database that is accessible through the presentation layer.

In the aspect of the invention, the domain model may be updated withsynchronization facilities. In the aspect of the invention, updating thedomain model may include bulk updating of the domain model.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for a domain modelcomprising a plurality of objects in accordance with various embodimentsof the present invention are provided. The aspect may include providinga domain model comprising a plurality of objects containing employee andemployee benefits information and dynamically adjusting, with aprocessor, the plurality of objects using the transaction information ineach object to reproduce a state of the domain model as it existed whenany one of the transactions was applied. In the aspect of the invention,each of the plurality of objects containing employee and employeebenefits information may contain data describing all state changes ofthe object and all transactions applied to the object.

The aspect may further include separating effective dates from thedomain model to facilitate the objects dynamically adjusting to operatewith properties and associations in effect as of an effective date. Inthe aspect of the invention, the effective date may be a date range.Embodiments may further include responding to a query of the domainmodel with the processor by retrieving data from at least one version ofat least one of the plurality of objects that is indicated by theeffective date; dynamically adjusting the plurality of objects based onan effective date; responding to a query of the domain model with theprocessor by retrieving data from at least one version of at least oneof the plurality of objects that is indicated by the reproduced state ofthe domain model; and responding to a query of the domain model with theprocessor by retrieving data from at least one version of at least oneof the plurality of objects that is indicated by an effective date.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for an effectivedated domain model comprising a plurality of effective dated objects inaccordance with various embodiments of the present invention areprovided. The aspect may include providing a domain model comprising aplurality of effective dated objects containing employee and employeebenefits information and dynamically adjusting, with a processor, theplurality of objects using the transaction information in each object toreproduce a state of the domain model as it existed when any one of thetransactions was applied. The aspect may include each of the pluralityof objects containing employee and employee benefits information maycontain data describing all state changes of the object and alltransactions applied to the object. The aspect may include separatingeffective dates from the domain model to facilitate the objectsdynamically adjusting to operate with properties and associations ineffect as of an effective date. In the aspect, the effective date may bea date range. The aspect may further include responding to a query ofthe domain model with the processor by retrieving data from at least oneversion of at least one of the plurality of objects that is indicated bythe effective date; responding to a query of the domain model with theprocessor by retrieving data from at least one version of at least oneof the plurality of objects that is indicated by the reproduced state ofthe domain model; and responding to a query of the domain model with theprocessor by retrieving data from at least one version of at least oneof the plurality of objects that is indicated by an effective date.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for an effectivedated domain model comprising a plurality of effective dated objects inaccordance with various embodiments of the present invention areprovided. The aspect may include providing a domain model comprising aplurality of effective dated objects containing employee and employeebenefits information, wherein each of the plurality of objects maycontain data describing all state changes of the object and alltransactions applied to the object; receiving a query of the domainmodel that references an effective date; and dynamically adjusting, witha processor, the plurality of objects using the transaction informationin each object to reproduce a state of the domain model as it existed onthe effective date. The aspect may include responding to the query byretrieving data from at least one version of at least one of theplurality of objects that is indicated by the reproduced state of thedomain model. The aspect may include separating effective dates from thedomain model to facilitate the objects dynamically adjusting to operatewith properties and associations in effect as of an effective date. Inthe aspect, the effective date may be a date range.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for applying a changeto an effective dated domain model in accordance with variousembodiments of the present invention are provided. The aspect mayinclude accessing a domain model to acquire a current version of adomain object containing employee and employee benefits information;determining an effective start date for a change of a portion of thedomain object, the domain object being associated with a currentgeneration; creating a new generation of the domain object that includesa copy of the current generation; creating a new version of the domainobject within the new generation based on a current version; andallocating the effective start date to the new version.

In the aspect of the invention, methods may further include storing thenew generation with a processor in a human resources managementdatabase.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for supporting apending state in a domain model in accordance with various embodimentsof the present invention are provided. The aspect may include providinga domain model comprising a plurality of objects containing employee andemployee benefits information and dynamically adjusting, with aprocessor, the plurality of objects using the pending state in eachobject to produce a state of the domain model that includes the pendingstate based on the business application context. In the aspect of theinvention, each of the plurality of objects containing employee andemployee benefits information may reflect a pending state of the objectbased on a business application context.

In the aspect of the invention, the pending state may be accessible tothe processor in a pending delegate of the object. In the aspect of theinvention, the pending delegate may only be accessible through theobject.

The aspect may also include configuring a pending state of a domainmodel; receiving a change to an employee benefits data item in a domainobject of the domain model that requires authorization; using aprocessor to create a pending delegate of the domain object; andaccessing the data item in the pending delegate.

In the aspect of the invention, accessing the data item in the pendingdelegate may include accessing the pending delegate through the domainobject and may be achieved only through the domain object. In the aspectof the invention, creating the pending state may be based on theconfiguration of the pending state and may include employee and employeebenefit data.

In the aspect of the invention, the aspect may include configuring apending state of a domain model; determining a change to benefits dataaccessible in a domain object of the domain model that requiresauthorization; using a processor to create a pending delegate of thedomain object; and accessing the data item in the pending delegate.

In the aspect of the invention, accessing the data item in the pendingdelegate may include accessing the pending delegate through the domainobject and may be achieved only through the domain object. In the aspectof the invention, creating the pending state may be based on theconfiguration of the pending state.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for benefitsselection in accordance with various embodiments of the presentinvention are provided. The aspect may include taking an employeebenefits domain model comprising a hierarchical set of benefitseligibility criteria and a plurality of domain objects representingemployee attributes; using a processor to receive an employee identifierand access the domain model to retrieve attributes of the employee;presenting a first selection of benefits to the employee based on acomparison of the employee attributes with the benefits eligibilitycriteria; receiving a benefits selection from the employee; andpresenting a second selection of benefits to the employee based on thecomparison and the selection.

In the aspect of the invention, accessing the domain model may be basedon a target date. In the aspect of the invention, the plurality ofdomain objects may be effective dated. In the aspect of the invention,the attributes retrieved may be associated with a domain object versionthat has an effective from date less than the target date and aneffective to date greater than the target date. In the aspect, theattributes retrieved are retrieved from a domain object version thatincludes the target date within an effective date range of the objectversion.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for repairingemployee benefits data in a benefits administration management domainmodel in accordance with various embodiments of the present inventionare provided. The aspect may include receiving a change related to anemployee benefit; modifying a domain object representing the employeebenefit; calculating with a processor an impact on portions of thedomain model that include a state of the employee benefit; and updatingthe domain model so that the state of the employee benefit is adjustedbased on the impact.

In the aspect of the invention, the domain object may be an effectivedated domain object. In the aspect of the invention, the state of theemployee benefit may be associated with an effective date of theeffective dated domain object.

In the aspect of the invention, the state may be a future state relativeto a target date, a past state relative to a target date, or the like.

In the aspect of the invention, the change related to an employeebenefit may be a change in rules, a change in employee indicative data,or any other change. In the aspect of the invention, employee indicativedata may include one or more of an employee residential address, anemployee zip code, and a union membership.

In the aspect of the invention, the change related to an employeebenefit may also be a newly declared event.

In the aspect of the invention, calculating the impact may be based onthe received change, on the received change and the state, or on someother factor.

In the aspect of the invention, the state may be a pending state of adomain object. In the aspect of the invention, the pending state may becaptured in a pending delegate.

In the aspect of the invention, the state may be associated with aneffective dated domain object. In the aspect of the invention, updatingmay include recording updates in a domain object version.

In the aspect of the invention, the domain model may comprise effectivedated domain objects.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for repairingemployee benefits data in a benefits administration management domainmodel in accordance with various embodiments of the present inventionare provided. The aspect may include receiving a change related to anemployee benefit; calculating with a processor an impact on portions ofthe domain model that include a first state of the employee benefit;calculating with a processor an impact on portions of the domain modelthat include a second state of the employee benefit; and updating thedomain model so that the employee benefit is adjusted based on theimpact.

In the aspect of the invention, updating the domain model may includemodifying a domain object representing the first or second state of theemployee benefit.

In the aspect of the invention, the change related to an employeebenefit may be a change in rules, a change in employee indicative data,or any other change. In the aspect of the invention, employee indicativedata may include one or more of an employee residential address, anemployee zip code, and a union membership.

In the aspect of the invention, the change related to an employeebenefit may also be a newly declared event.

In the aspect of the invention, calculating the impact may be based onthe received change, on the received change and at least one of thefirst state and the second state, or on some other factor.

In the aspect of the invention, the state may be a pending state of adomain object. In the aspect of the invention, the pending state may becaptured in a pending delegate.

In the aspect of the invention, the state may be associated with aneffective dated domain object. In the aspect of the invention, updatingmay include recording updates in a domain object version.

In the aspect of the invention, the domain model may comprise effectivedated domain objects.

In an aspect of the invention, methods and systems for interacting witha benefits administration platform in accordance with variousembodiments of the present invention are provided. The aspect mayinclude transmitting benefits information from a server to a remotecomputing facility over a network; presenting the benefits informationto a user in a user interface using the computing facility; receiving aresponse to the benefits information from the user using the computingfacility; transmitting the response to the server; computing changes tothe benefits information based on the response; and updating aserver-accessible domain model of the benefits based on the computedchanges. The aspect may further include transmitting the changes to thecomputing facility.

In the aspect of the invention, transmitting the benefits informationfrom the server to the remote computing facility may include retrievingthe benefits information from the domain model. In the aspect of theinvention, retrieving the benefits information may be based on a useridentifier provided from the web browser.

In the aspect of the invention, the user interface may run using ADOBEFLASH technology, the user interface may be built using ADOBE FLEXtechnology, and the user may be a benefits subscriber. In the aspect ofthe invention, the benefits information may include one or more of:employee profile data, beneficiary data; dependent data; benefitelection data; benefit-related event data; employee health data; medicalbenefits; dental benefits; life insurance benefits; flexible spendingaccount data; and employer paid benefits. In the aspect of theinvention, the benefits subscriber may be an employee. In the aspect ofthe invention, the response may impact one or more of: employee profiledata, beneficiary data; dependent data; benefit election data;benefit-related event data; employee health data; medical benefits;dental benefits; life insurance benefits; flexible spending accountdata; and employer paid benefits.

In the aspect of the invention, the user may be a benefitsadministrator. In the aspect of the invention, the benefits informationmay include one or more of: enrollment transaction trends; new hireenrollment data; employee search; event search; enrollment status;dependent age data; census data; benefit election data; medical benefitdata; billing data; event timeline data; and employee attribute timelinedata. In the aspect of the invention, the response may impact one ormore of: employee profile data, beneficiary data; dependent data;benefit election data; benefit-related event data; employee health data;medical benefits; dental benefits; life insurance benefits; flexiblespending account data; and employer paid benefits.

In the aspect of the invention, the user interface may display an eventstimeline.

These and other systems, methods, objects, features, and advantages ofthe present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art fromthe following detailed description of the preferred embodiment and thedrawings. All documents mentioned herein are hereby incorporated intheir entirety by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The invention and the following detailed description of certainembodiments thereof may be understood by reference to the followingfigures:

FIG. 1 depicts diverse elements of a human resource management platform.

FIG. 2 depicts an architecture view of the platform.

FIG. 3 depicts smart synchronization aspects of the platform.

FIG. 4 depicts effective dating aspects of the platform.

FIG. 5 depicts group manager facilities of the platform.

FIG. 6 depicts a data independence embodiment.

FIG. 7 depicts platform reporting flows.

FIG. 8 depicts a unified human resources management platform.

FIG. 9A depicts an employee-centric view of the unified platform of FIG.9A.

FIG. 9B depicts an administrator-centric view of the unified platform ofFIG. 9A.

FIG. 10 depicts a welcome screen of the benefits administration system.

FIG. 11 depicts an employee profile screen.

FIG. 12 depicts a beneficiary maintenance screen.

FIG. 13 depicts a dependent maintenance screen.

FIG. 14 depicts a screen for wellness centre.

FIG. 15 depicts a FSA manager screen.

FIG. 16 depicts a voluntary programs screen.

FIG. 17 depicts a screen for common forms.

FIG. 18 depicts a current benefits screen.

FIG. 19 depicts a screen for declaring a life event.

FIG. 20 depicts a screen with duly filed information for a life eventdeclaration.

FIG. 21 depicts a welcome screen for enrollment.

FIG. 22 depicts a screen for indicating tobacco usage

FIG. 23 depicts a screen for reviewing the current enrollment.

FIG. 24 depicts a screen for reviewing dependent information.

FIG. 25 depicts a screen for adding a dependent.

FIG. 26 depicts a screen illustrating input data validation

FIG. 27 depicts a screen showing added dependents.

FIG. 28 depicts a beneficiary review screen.

FIG. 29 depicts a screen for adding beneficiary information.

FIG. 30 depicts a screen for assigning an allocation to a beneficiary.

FIG. 31 depicts a screen for making an election for one benefit.

FIG. 32 depicts a screen for electing medical benefits.

FIG. 33 depicts a timeline change upon election of a coverage level.

FIG. 34 depicts a selection page for supplemental life insurance.

FIG. 35 depicts a pending change to supplemental life insurance.

FIG. 36 depicts a flexible spending account election screen.

FIG. 37 depicts an employer paid benefits page.

FIG. 38 depicts a review and confirm changes page.

FIG. 39 depicts a benefit confirmation screen

FIG. 40 depicts returning to the welcome screen with a new pending lifeevent listed for approval.

FIG. 41 depicts various tools available to the administrator.

FIG. 42 depicts various tools available to the administrator, and ascreen for conducting an employee search.

FIGS. 43 a, 43 b, 43 c, and 43 d depict an administrator evidence ofinsurability search.

FIG. 44 depicts an administrator screen for an event search.

FIG. 45 depicts an administrator enrollment statistics report.

FIG. 46 depicts an administrator new hire report.

FIG. 47 depicts an administrator dependent age out report.

FIG. 48 depicts an administrator dependent age out report filteredaccording to particular criteria.

FIG. 49 depicts the status of queued census reports.

FIG. 50 depicts a customization interface for creating an administratorcensus report.

FIG. 51 depicts an administrator output file statistics report.

FIG. 52 depicts an administrator output file count report.

FIG. 53 depicts an administrator report for input file search.

FIG. 54 depicts an administrator enrollment transaction report.

FIG. 55 depicts an administrator enrollment transaction report in formof a chart.

FIG. 56 depicts an administrator benefit election summary report.

FIG. 57 depicts an administrator plan migration report.

FIG. 58 depicts an administrator interface for creating an ad hocreport.

FIG. 59 depicts a screen for ad hoc report management by anadministrator.

FIG. 60 depicts an administrator access to historical premium billingreports by month.

FIG. 61 depicts an audit screen of all transaction, events, andelections for a subscriber.

FIG. 62 depicts election changes that occurred at a particular event.

FIG. 63 depicts an audit timeline view

FIG. 64 depicts a screen for annual enrollment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A human resource management platform may include a centralized domainmodel where application logic comes together in one place; a deep andmature configuration model that provides extensive configurability; aunique design for groups and hierarchies that facilitates leveragingthem for natural and efficient rule distribution; smart synchronizationfeatures to facilitate loading bulk data and recomputing ramificationsof changes detected in the data; data independence and pending worldfeatures that allow the platform to maintain independent data setspertaining to the same core entity or organization concurrently whileallowing a wide range of data update options; an effective datingframework that may facilitate accurately maintaining chronologicalstates of the platform and its associated data in the past, present, andfuture at the same time; high-performance, scalable, andenterprise-class support; and many other features and capabilities asdescribed herein.

The platform may include domain driven design features that may be wellsuited to a scalable product family that can be readily tailored to avariety of client needs. Business logic may be centrally located in thedomain model, which may form an object-oriented backbone to theplatform.

The platform may include a deep configuration model that may providerich model-based configuration capabilities that can be preparedexternally and loaded into the platform to handle a wide range ofrequirements from clients. The configuration model may includeconfiguring values, structures, scripted functionality, and the like.

The platform may provide a rich user experience through an intuitive andinteractive user interface that is centered on the user's experience,using a combination of textual and graphical means to presentinformation relevant to the user's job.

The platform may be scalable to support any size population and featureset from very small to very large. The platform may support deploymentsof 400,000 users or more. Feature sets may be expanded to meetrequirements that fall outside the bounds of the deep configurationmodel capabilities.

Applications in human resource management must have high volume fileprocessing capabilities. Information for which a client is the system ofrecord may be regularly loaded through full file processing, andinformation derived within the platform 100 must be sent to variousparties in formats that they require. Therefore, the platform may beopen to integration with other systems and facilities in areas such asspecialized decision support tools, supplying data feeds, receivingdata, and the like. Integration may be provided through front and backend integration points, flexible input and output file mappingcapabilities, and the like.

The platform 100 may support third party integration to facilitatebringing together the best content and user experience to solve humanresource management challenges. The platform 100 may present severalmechanisms for integrating third parties into the system, providing aseamless experience to the end user, including—linking to remotecontent—a user interface can be easily tailored to providecontext-sensitive links to content provided by a client or third party;accessing local content—certain content may be accessed from within afirewall or through a server, such as for security purposes. The userinterface can be tailored with internal content links to provideinternal content; consuming web services—the platform 100 contains webservice integration support that enables applications to consume webservices from third parties. In an example, users may be directed tothird party control, with connections initiated and results obtainedthrough web services; publishing web services—third party tools may alsouse portions of application functionality provided by web services thatcan be published by the platform 100 or by a provider of the platform100. In an example, publishing web services may be used for real-timedata synchronization by clients or for information queries and updatesby internal tools; data import and export—the platform 100 may supportbatch loading of full updated files from clients, and export of filesformatted for specific recipients.

Because human capital management operation can be very complex, with avariety of special cases, and seemingly ad hoc rules that must befollowed, users may be subjected to software in this space that reflectsthat complexity in its user interfaces and support requirements. Incontrast, the platform is designed to control substantially all of thecomplexity through a high degree of automation for client featuredevelopment, production code generation, specialized tools creation, andproduct build and deployment processes.

Referring to FIG. 1 which depicts various elements that may beassociated with embodiments of the human resource management platform100, platform features 102 may include a domain model that may includebusiness logic, an effective dating framework, database update orsynchronization capabilities, smart synchronization facilities forupdating data and the domain model in the database with enterprisebusiness system data, deep configuration features, group managerfeatures, data independence functionality, workflows, and the like. Theplatform 100 may also be associated with business applications 104 suchas performance driven compensation applications, compensation planningapplications that supports both in-cycle (focal) and out-of-cycleplanning, benefits applications that can be used by employees, humanresource administrators, and third parties, employee and manager selfservice applications, performance planning, appraisal, and feedbackapplications that support input from employees, co-workers, andmanagers, and other business applications as may be described herein ormay be envisioned or needed for effective use of the human resourcemanagement platform. The platform 100 may be associated with a userinterface that may provide alert capabilities, access security, and awide variety of user interface screens, such as those associated witheach of the business applications 104. The platform 100 maybe associatedwith various technologies 110 that may be used for development,deployment, operation, maintenance, upgrade, and the like. Platformtechnologies 110 may include open source software, domain driven design,JBOSS HIBERNATE, ECLIPSE, JAVA, JMX, ADOBE FLASH, ADOBE FLEX, TAPESTRY,JASPER, DOJO, SOAP, AJAX, XML, and the like. The platform 100 may beassociated with and support external interfaces 112 such as businesssystem data sources, external application linking and integration, webservices, input file processing and compliance checking, changepublication services, reporting, and the like. The platform 100 mayinclude or be associated with one or more databases 114 that may providepersistence of data and access to input data and derived data includingthe domain model. The platform 100 may be associated with users 118 thatmay include line managers, group managers, human resourceadministrators, various other corporate roles, information technologyspecialists, employees, third parties, and the like. The platform 100may be deployable in a wide variety of markets 120, some of which mayinclude large entities. Markets may include aerospace and defense,banking, business services, capital goods, chemicals, conglomerates,construction, consumer goods, diversified financials, drugs and biotechnologies, food, beverage, and tobacco businesses, health care, hotelservice, travel and leisure services, insurance, materials, oil and gasproduction and distribution, retailing, semiconductors,telecommunications, transportation, utilities, and the like. Theplatform 100 may be associated with and may beneficially supportbusiness services 122 such as planning, management, financial approval,payroll, employee-related analysis, event processing, reportingrequirements, business system configuration, business logic realization,secure employee data access, workflows, and the like. The platform 100may also be associated with deployment 124 that may facilitate hosting,licensing, web browser integration, thin client deployment, server-baseddeployment, virtual computing, virtual data warehousing, and the like.

Referring to FIG. 2, a functionality view of the platform 100, theplatform 100 may include a presentation layer 202, a business logiclayer 204, and a persistence layer 208. The presentation layer 202 mayfacilitate user access through a web-based interface that may be almostentirely implemented in ADOBE FLEX, running in the user's web browser,and communicating to a platform server through an SSL connection. Theuser may interact with the platform 100 over a secure connection, andmay be authenticated via single sign-on to use the platform eitherthrough a third party security portal or through a login screenassociated with the platform 100. Functionality and visibility tocertain data may be restricted from the user due to platform 100authorization rules. Administrators may get access to additionalfunctionality and visibility of additional data, which may includeaccess to workflow results, historical and auditing information. Otherportions of the platform may provide services to the presentation layer202 through which users access the services and functionality of theplatform 100. The presentation layer 202 may also include HTMLcapabilities, provide support for a reporting mechanism (e.g. Jasperreporting or other equivalent reporting mechanisms), provide PDFformatted documents, and the like.

The platform 100 may provide a business logic layer 204 that generallycan be understood to be a middle tier in the product architecture wheresubstantially all of the application logic is disposed. A rich objectmodel, which may be stored on a server, interacts with the presentationlayer 202, computes implications of data input to the platform, and maystore itself in a database that may be part of a persistence layer 208.Configuration loaded into the platform creates and modifies objects, andweb services may be published or consumed to provide a communicationpath with the model to outside partners. Application components build onthis model, adding capabilities such as succession, performance,compensation, benefits administration, and the like.

The platform 100 may provide a persistence layer 208 that may be largelyautomated in the platform, with an object-relational mapping strategyfor synchronizing a database and an in-memory model using databasesynchronization software such as JBoss Hibernate. As described herein,the platform may include an effective dating framework that may beautomated with this layer. The database that is accessed through thepersistence layer 208 may contain no business logic so that it canprovide a fast storage and query response for objects in the model. Thepersistence layer 208 may include denormalized representations ofportions of the database to support analytics, reporting, and the like.The persistence layer 208 also implements some security aspects andprovides a basis for fast data loading and separation of data sets.

The human resource management platform 100 may provide facilities forupdating the object model and database based on data received fromexternal business systems, such as financial, organizational, legal, andthe like. Generally, human resource management systems rely on datacaptured and managed in external business systems that may be used forstrategic and operational purposes by businesses. External data mayinclude insurance, benefit programs, and the like from third parties.The platform 100 provides smart synchronization facilities that enablebulk loading of data from these systems on a regular basis whileproviding rules driven, time efficient automatic updating of the dataand model content used by the platform 100. Smart synchronization maysupport various computing environments, such as parallel processing ordistributed computing architectures to benefit updating data indeployments of the platform in large organizations (e.g. utilitycompanies with more than one hundred thousand employees, large numbersof transactions, and the like).

Referring to FIG. 3, which depicts a smart synchronization facility 300of the platform 100, bulk loading of data may benefit the variousbusiness applications supported by the platform 100 such as performancedriven compensation and benefits administration. Smart synchronization300 may provide capabilities to bring the bulk data into the platform100 rapidly and upload the model/database quickly. Smart synchronization300 also supports data that is effective dated and may support receivingdata in industry standard formats (HRXML and other consortium formats).Although data received and processed through smart synchronization 300eventually results in a database update, changes are applied to theobject model and the updated object model elements are persisted in thedatabase through a bulk database update process.

The smart synchronization facilities 300 may be designed as a pipelinearchitecture with a series of transformations that convert raw businessdata 302 into object data 308 using handlers 304. The object data 308 isvalidated for errors and the like (e.g. raw data 302 contains 200 jobdescriptions, yet the current model holds 10,000 job descriptions). Thevalidated object data is then reconciled 312 with the current model data320 to determine differences, such as changes in salary, new employees,new jobs, organizational changes, and the like. The changes may beprovided to a recomputation engine 314 that recomputes all derived modeldata, taking into consideration the changes provided by the reconcileprocess 312. As the object data in the model is updated through therecomputation process 314, it may be organized into groups of likedatabase transactions to improve the efficiency of these updates. In anexample, if an organization of 7,000 employees is moved in anorganizational hierarchy, the hierarchy link of each of these employeesmay be grouped and forwarded to the database update engine 318 toimprove the efficiency of the update. When all derived model data isrecomputed through the recomputation engine 314 and the model data ispersisted in the database through the update facility 318, the objectmodel and database now references the updated model and database 322.

Portions of smart synchronization 300 may be implemented as a pipelineto support operation on separate processors, servers, and the like. Thismay be facilitated by the inherent separation of employee data. Whilethe types of data required for each employee may be the same, theinformation is very unique and can be processed independently.Similarly, although data and formulas for processing data for a businessapplication such as performance driven compensation may be differentwhen compared to processing data for benefits administration, the mainsmart synchronization steps and algorithms may be the same. Smartsynchronization 300 may be similar to and/or may be used to implementcoverage repair in a benefits administration business application. Thisis further described in the benefits administration applicationspecification.

Smart synchronization 300 may also be embodied as a rules engine thatallows a company to decide how data in the platform 100 reacts tochanges in the data that is sent into the platform 100 on a regularbasis such as from various other business systems.

Smart synchronization 300 may operate in parallel on any plurality ofinstances of the current model 320 as may be required with dataindependence described herein elsewhere.

Smart synchronization 300 also supports a full audit trail of allchanges made, which may be important for regulatory compliance and otherchange verification processes.

Because smart synchronization 300 recomputes all derived data, plannedchanges that are recorded in the platform 100 and are not yet effectivein the current model 320, but will be effective at a future point intime, if a data item that impacts these planned changes is received, thecomputations that affect the planned change will automatically beexecuted. In an example, if a manager has entered plans for meritincreases for eight of her employees and the external business dataindicates that one of these employees is to be transferred to anothermanager before the merit increase is to be effective, smartsynchronization 300 will detect this employee change and compute thedata necessary to support the planned employee transfer and the plannedmerit increases. Changes may include: moving an employee compensationbudget from the first manager to the second manager; ensuring that anypending authorization workflows for the merit increase are moved to therole responsible for authorizing merit increases for the second manager;adjusting other aspects of the employee compensation (e.g. bonus) basedon the department rules of the second manager, and the like. In thisway, the updated model 322 reflects these planned changes so that eachmanager can see how the planned changes will impact their departments inthe future.

Recomputation of derived data may be required because all of thebudgets, guidelines, workflows, and the like may be configured into theplatform 100 but may not be inherent in the external business systems.Therefore, any given change made outside the platform 100 (ex: anemployee is hired, transferred, fired, quits, etc) and input to theplatform 100 for synchronization has no way of knowing what thedownstream impact to other parts of the platform 100 will be. Thisautomatic recomputation allows managers and administrators to focus onthe business of the specific change (dealing with an employeeresignation) rather than the complexities of the impact of the change tothe platform 100.

Smart synchronization 300 may include separating external business data302 into separate files or categories of data, such as data that relatesto jobs, salary, employees, groups, workflow approvers, and the like.Alternatively the data may already be separated into individual files,such as a job file, an employee file, and the like. Each file orcategory of data may be processed separately, which may further improvethe efficiency of the synchronization process.

The reconcile process 312 may infer a deletion or a change of an itembased on a comparison of the raw business data 302 and the current model320. Using an example of a job description, the reconciliation process312 may compare each existing job with the jobs in the job data inputfile; determine what is new, what has changed, and what has beenremoved. In this example each job may be assigned a unique identifier.If the unique identifier in the input data 302 matches to a job in thecurrent model 320, then reconciliation 312 determines if the job datahas changed by comparing the input job data to the current model jobdata. If the unique identifier in the input data 302 does not exist inthe current model 320, the input data job is flagged as a new job to beadded during the recomputation process 314. If one or more unique jobidentifiers in the current model 320 is not found in the input data,then these jobs in the current model 320 are tagged as to be deleted.The job is not directly deleted because it may be used or referencedelsewhere in the platform 100. Although the platform 100 does notreceive a ‘delete job’ action, smart synchronization 300 infers that anentry in the platform 100 that is not included in the current job inputfile is to be removed. An item that is tagged to be deleted may resultin the recompute process 314 archiving the job to ensure propertraceability for regulatory and governance compliance.

The platform 100 is scalable to facilitate support of entities with veryhigh employee counts. Entities with upwards of 400,000 employees can besupported by the platform 100. Smart synchronization 300 facilitatesscalability through memory management techniques that may include usingcaching and pagination to perform the synchronization process on largemodel elements with a reasonable amount of memory. Because of the widelydiverse impact of a change that relates to employee groups that aredefined and/or maintained within the platform through the group managerfunctionality (described elsewhere herein), recomputation 314 requiresvery large amounts of data to be available for processing. One memorymanagement technique used includes keying input data with a natural key(e.g. social security number for employee, hierarchy key for a group,and the like). The natural key may be used in conjunction with theindividual object model element unique identifier to cache relevant dataso that the recomputation processing 314 can be executed veryefficiently.

Smart synchronization 300 includes an update facility 318 that persiststhe recomputed model data to produce the updated model and database 322.As described herein, techniques to make this update process efficientinclude, among other techniques, grouping like database transactionstogether into a single update request. Even if calculations are simple,due to the large quantity of calculations and database changes requiredeach time that smart synchronization 300 is performed the data to beupdated is ordered to facilitate batching the update requests.

In an example, a database update tool, such as HIBERNATE may be usedbecause it supports efficient batching of requests. With HIBERNATE, theplatform 100 may accumulate a large number of updates (e.g. 10,000) intoa single request rather than issuing 10,000 individual requests.Batching is also used when data is read out of the database forreconciliation 312 or recomputation 314 so that fewer transactionrequests must be processed during the smart synchronization process 300.

Smart synchronization 300 may also include handlers 304 that may operatein a pipeline or may themselves be composed of a pipeline of dataprocessing sections. The organization, order, and features of thehandlers 304 may be configured as part of a build time configurationprocess. This handler 304 customization may allow receiving data that isunique for a deployment of the platform 100 (e.g. adding or handling aspecial job code). Although handlers 304 are generally ordered toprocess data from the most generic (e.g. jobs) to the more specific(e.g. groups), the order of the handlers can be changed so that a grouphandler 304A may be executed before or after a job handler 304B.Handlers 304 can execute a wide variety of tasks, such as to copy data,check a length of description, and the like. Configuring handlers 304may be performed with an interface coded using Java.

Effective dating is a strategy for managing data that changes over time.Traditional data processing takes place in the present, and results arestored from now until they are changed in the future. With effectivedating, you can set the effective date to a date or date range, and readdata as it was (or is projected to be), or write data for the present,past or future. Most effective dating designs fail due to poorperformance or overly complex logic, passing dates and date rangesthroughout the code and obscuring the business logic. The platform 100includes a sophisticated layer that separates dates from the applicationlogic and manages effective dates deep in the architecture outside ofapplication logic, keeping the logic itself simple. For certain businessapplications supported by the platform 100, effective dating isfundamental. For example, in benefits administration, benefitseligibility, plan changes, coverage effective dates, pending coverageand events all occur at various times, making it difficult to keep trackof the benefits and costs associated with employees at any time. Theplatform 100 provides tools to create an effective dated modelimplementation and persistence layer. This unique capability provides ascriptable, simple point-in-time programming model to developers, forcustomizations, and scripted configuration. It also effective dates aconfiguration of the platform 100 itself, so that changes inconfiguration can be scheduled to take effect at some point in thefuture, or retroactively in the past. Automation and layering may betechniques that make this successful. The effective dating frameworkalso has a built-in capability referred to as pending worlds whichallows a type of long-lived transaction. Unlike a true transaction,however, it is not totally isolated. Rather, it is a branching strategythat allows write-through from the main non-pending world. This allowslive what-if scenarios that are automatically updated when non-pendinginformation is changed that may affect the pending world. For example,in benefits administration, if an employee declares a birth event, a newpending world is created where the new dependent and any elections arestored until the event is approved. If a subsequent plan changes affectseligibility or changes rates, the benefits in both the pending andnon-pending worlds will be updated accordingly.

Referring now to FIG. 4, which depicts a simplified embodiment ofeffective dating, effective dating 400 may enable changes made to eachdomain object 404 to be associated with an effective date 402 and with ageneration 408. Tracking of changes to domain objects may be supportedwith a two dimensional effective dating mechanism. When placed on an X-Ychart, as shown in FIG. 4, the X axis may represent an effective datetime line and the Y axis may represent generations of an object. Withineach object generation 408 (each ‘value’ of Y), eacheffective-date-differentiated version of the object is tracked based oneffective dates known when the object generation is saved (e.g. when itis persisted in the persistence layer). The current object generation(indicated by its Y value) includes the previous object generationeffective dated object versions, plus additional changes introducedsince the previous object generation was saved. Once the current objectgeneration is saved, any further changes that impact the object will beapplied to a new object generation (indicated by a new Y value) thatstarts out as a clean copy of the most recently saved object generation.

Each version of a domain object has an effective date that may includean effective ‘from’ date and an effective ‘to’ date to allow selectiveaccess of a version of the object based on this effective date range.

FIG. 4 includes three object generations, generation 1 (408A),generation 2 (408B), and generation 3 (408C). In the simplified exampleof FIG. 4, generation 1 includes one version of the object 404 witheffective dates 10/1/08 to all time. Generation 2 includes a copy 404Aof the object 404 from generation 1 with effective dates adjusted toOct. 1, 2008 to Jun. 30, 2009 and a second version 410 of the copy 404Athat includes certain changes and has effective dates Jul. 1, 2009 toall time. Generation 3 includes a copy of object version 404A, a copy410A of object version 410 with adjusted effective dates Jul. 1, 2009 toOct. 3, 2009, and an updated version 412 of the object version 410A thatincludes certain changes and an effective date of Nov. 1, 2009 to alltime.

In the example of FIG. 4, when the change in the number of dependentsfrom 2 to 3 is entered, the generation 1 object version 404 is saved anda copy 404A of the generation 1 object version is allocated togeneration 2. The effective ‘to’ date of the object version 404A is setbased on the ‘from’ effective date of the number of dependents change. Acopy 410 of object version 404A is created in generation 2, thedependent changes are made to it and it is effective dated so that thereis no gap between the 404A version and the 410 version of the object.

Once generation 2 is saved to the database, a subsequent object change(in this example an address change) is applied to a new generation(generation 3) of the object. Generation 3 starts as a copy ofgeneration 2 and includes object version 404A and a copy 410A of objectversion 410 with an adjusted effective ‘to’ date based on the effectivedate of the address change. The object version 410A is copied to a newobject version 412, the address change is applied and the effectivedates are set.

Although the example of FIG. 4 is a simplified example of effectivedating, the order of changes could be different and the end result wouldbe the same. If in the example the 408C change occurred first (with aneffective date of 11/1) and then in a next generation the 408B changeoccurred (with an effective date of 7/1) the changes would result in thesame final generation because the platform 100 allow updates to beapplied in any effective dating order.

Execution instances of a business application (e.g. compensationquarterly planning) may be associated with a target date that mayrepresent the calendar date for which the business application is beingexecuted. In an example of how a target date may be interpreted by anobject to provide the data effective on the target date, generation 3 ofFIG. 4 represents an object being queried. An instance of a businessapplication associated with a target date of Jun. 1, 2009 will accessinformation from object version 404A because Jun. 1, 2009 falls withinthe effective date range Oct. 1, 2008 to Jun. 30, 2009 of version 404A.This includes the user name, social security number, address of 123 MainSt, and dependent count of 2. A business application being executed witha Sep. 1, 2009 target date will access object version 410A whichincludes the user name, social security number, address of 123 Main St,and dependent count of 3. An instance of a business application beingexecuted with a target date of Nov. 1, 2009 will access version 412which includes the user name, social security number, address of 4 EagleSt, and dependent count of 3. This example is specifically simplified toshow how effective dating 400 may be used by business applications inthe platform 100. Note that all this is operating on the latestgeneration—that is, updated with the latest information and furtherincluding all values that were in effect in any domain object version.Generally, only an administrator inspecting auditing information andselected reports may look at older domain object generations. However,the entire platform 100 can operate with a target date set to anyprevious date in such a way that the platform 100 would read from theearlier generation that was available at that target date.

An objective of effective dating may be to support point-in-timesimplicity in the platform 100 that allows selecting a target datesimilarly to setting a clock to a particular date/time and gettingaccess to only the information effective at the set date/time. Thebusiness applications operate based on the target date so that anapplications programmer does not need to create any logic to determinewhich entry to use; the underlying platform provides the correct data.Effective dating 400 allows for an application to identify a particulartime and access to the data is implemented by the platform below thebusiness application/logic layer, but above the database. Effectivedating 400 may be different from prior attempts that created separatedatabase tables for different times. The prior attempts generally do notperform well on large databases, do not support bulk data loading, anddo not support using data caching for updates. One embodiment indicatesthat a future state is kept in a separate table that is copied to acurrently active model shortly after midnight to bring the current modelto the current (no longer future) state. While this may be effective, itmay not meet the performance requirements of large enterprise-classdeployments. Other prior attempts at effective dating included creatingseparate tables or change tables and then pass dates throughout thebusiness applications to try to figure out what a state of an object wasat a specific date. This puts an onerous burden on a programmer andmakes the application code significantly more complex and brittle. Thesedifferences may substantially improve the value and effectiveness ofusing effective dating 400.

A benefits administration business application executing in associationwith the platform 100 may use the effective dating mechanism 400described above to provide the ‘point-in-time’ simplicity within theapplication to deal with events in each subscriber's life that affectsbenefits. Application logic in the application may control the targettime so that it becomes the context that all objects implicitlyreference to provide data from the version that has an effective datethat includes the target time. The application controlled target timecan be in the past, present, or future.

Effective dating 400 may facilitate making a record of events andchanges over time. Effective dating 400 can also be used to inferevents. In an example, if a change in an employee's address is detectedin the raw input business data, an employee move event that occurredeffective with the date that the new address was introduced to theplatform 100 may be inferred from the data change. Effective dating 400may be applied to dates themselves, providing a record of changes todates. In an example, correcting an employee hire date may create twohire dates for the employee, one in effect up until the correction wasmade, and the other in effect after the correction. Therefore, anaccrual that is dependent on an employee start date can be automaticallycorrected when the system performs coverage repair based on the new hiredate. Coverage repair is a process used in the benefits administrationapplication for reconciling effective dated data changes introduced intothe system with business rules in effect during that time. Theconfiguration model that has all the rules of the objects is alsoeffective dated so we can access the rules (model definition) with aneffective date.

In an example of effective dating used in a benefits administrationmanagement business application, an object may include a current salaryof an employee. The employee's manager may enter a change to theemployee salary with an effective ‘from’ date in the future (a plannedsalary change). This change may trigger an automatic function thatprocesses object versions and generations as described above. Queries ofthe model that include a date request that is before planned salarychange ‘from’ date will reflect the current employee salary. Queries ofthe model that include a date request that is on or after the futureeffective date of the planned salary change will reflect the plannedsalary.

Changes to an object (e.g. an employee changes his address) may alsoaffect all versions of the object with a future ‘from’ effective date.This ensures that when the version of the object with the future ‘from’effective date is accessed, the data provided from the object includesall changes made prior to the ‘from’ effective date that are stillpertinent. Further in the planned salary change example described above,after the manager enters the planned salary change, the employee changeshis residential address. This change may result in creating a newgeneration of the object that includes a new version of the object thathas a ‘from’ effective date based on the date the employee moves. Thischange will also result in updating the employee residential addresscontained in the version of the object that reflects the planned salarychange. Therefore, when the planned salary change object becomeseffective, the updated employee residential address will be present inthe model.

Effective dating 400 may be based on an effective dating framework thatcan be applied to any standard object model design. A compile-timeeffective dating frame work tool may be used to create an effectivedated model from any object model such as object oriented designs,classes, states, and the like. The compile-time effective dating toolmay be executed against a client-specific adaptation of the domain modelto make objects time sensitive. Effective dating 400 as used within theplatform 100 facilitates supporting time tracking at a low level that isseparate from the object model and therefore allowing applications toretrieve database state data from different time spaces without havingto carry any time dependencies into the object API in the applicationlayer.

Effective dating 400 may also facilitate auditing. While conventionally,auditing is based on keeping track of all changes through some sort ofaudit table (e.g. tracking who made a change, etc) to ensure meetingregulations, the effective dating 400 framework allows each object tomanage its own history and allow a view of the system at any point intime. Because all changes are effective dated, the platform 100 offersmany layers of state that can be rolled back for auditing or any otherpurpose. Such complete and independent auditing is not necessarilyinherent in any other domain model-based environment.

Data being imported or exported can be effective dated. Exported datamay include effective dates represented as portions of a record for useby third parties such as insurance providers. When data from externalbusiness systems is input, such as with smart synchronization 300, ifthere is no date information associated with records that can be used togenerate the effective date, the date of first synchronization of thedata records may be considered the effective date. Smart synchronization300 may be configured to recognize a date that is associated with aninput record that is to be used to generate an effective date for theentry.

The platform may support managing employees within groups andhierarchies to facilitate hierarchical management of compensation,performance, benefits, and other human resource related activities.Hierarchies may be applied to data structure, creation, organization,and the like in performance and compensation planning and management.The platform may facilitate organizing employees into groups and/orhierarchies that may mirror the reporting and functional groups andhierarchies of the entity. The performance and/or compensation hierarchymay include aspects of the functional hierarchy of a company, whileincluding aspects that are independent of the functional hierarchy. Theperformance and/or compensation hierarchy may include adaptations ormodifications of functional hierarchies of an organization. In anexample, a functional hierarchy may identify directors as higher in thehierarchy than senior managers. However, a compensation hierarchy mayplace experienced senior managers and junior directors at the same levelin the hierarchy. In this way, senior managers, who may be performingmany director levels responsibilities, may be evaluated for compensationsimilarly to junior directors. An example of this is long-term incentiveawards which are usually awarded to managers only by senior directors orexecutives. Alternatively, the compensation hierarchy may be independentof a reporting or functional hierarchy. In an example, all directors,independent of their reporting or functional hierarchy in the businessmay share a common hierarchy level which may be related in acompensation hierarchy to all senior managers who share a differenthierarchy level. An organization with geographically diverse businessunits and even different languages may find relating directors from afirst region and senior managers from a second region provides a morecompetitive compensation offering. Organizing the compensation of alarge business in a compensation hierarchy may allow visibility tocompensation factor differences between different business units.

The human resources management platform 100 may also provide groupmanagement facilities that allow for managing hierarchies within theplatform that may be different from organizational and reportinghierarchies that may be represented in business system data input to theplatform. Matrix management may be represented in the platform 100 sothat an employee who has business-line reporting to a first manager andis working on a project that is under the management responsibility of asecond manager, may be grouped with the other project members under thesecond manager. Although a business system view of this employee mayshow the employee working directly for the first manager, a performanceand compensation view may be adjusted to show this employee in a groupmanaged by the second manager. Group management facilities providebenefits to users of the platform 100 that include not needing to createcomplex conversion software programs that adjust the business group viewto the matrix group view so that a compensation planning system canaccommodate matrix management.

Referring to FIG. 5, that depicts a functional view of group managerfacilities operating within the platform 100, enterprise business systemdata 302 may include line management grouping or hierarchies as shown.In the example of FIG. 5, a first line manager manages five employees—A,B, C, D, and E. A second line manager manages four employees—W, X, Y,and Z. In the example, each employee is currently assigned to work onone of two projects, project 1 and project 2. When this business systemdata 302 is supplied to the platform 100, the group manager 502 may beconfigured through configuration input 504 to detect each employee'sproject assignment as a natural key for grouping. The five employees ofthe first manager and the four employees of the second manager may begrouped into two groups within the platform 100: group one 508 that mayinclude employees A, C, E, and Y who are associated with project 1; andgroup two 510 that may include employees B, D, W, X, and Z who areassociated with project 2. Through this simplified example, anembodiment of the group manager 502 is used to organize employees intogroups other than those known and represented in the enterprise businesssystem data 302.

Group manager 502 may be associated with smart synchronization 300 inthat the data that is processed through the smart synchronizationprocess may include grouping through group manager 502. Group managercan be used to define a specific hierarchy to control how the data beingreceived from the external business systems 302 impacts groups that aredefined through group manager 502. Group manager 502, when combined withsmart synchronization 300 may also facilitate avoiding the creation andsupport of complex software that modifies data extracted from thebusiness system 302 so that certain changes in the data only impactmembers of a work group. In an example, if a bonus program for employeesworking on project 1 is changed, either the individual managers have tomaintain the data manually for each project 1 employee or special exportsoftware must be used adjust the bonus for each employee working onproject 1 as the data is transferred from the business system to theplatform 100. The group manager 502 significantly benefits humanresource administrators and managers so that data can be handled ingroups that they define, rather than wrangling with data in the businesssystem to overcome its limitations.

The group manager 502 allows for specific assignment of an employee to agroup. However, the group manger 502 also allows criteria based employeeand functional department grouping. Users of the group manager 502 mayidentify certain criteria, such as project assignment as a definitionfor group membership. In this way, by identifying an attributeassociated with employees (e.g. employees with currently vested stockoptions, sales people, non-exempt employees, and the like), a group ofthese employees may be defined within the platform 100. Businessapplications, such as a performance driven compensation application mayuse these criteria defined groups to apply rules, perform processing andthe like. In an example, a bonus plan may be established for non-exemptemployees. By grouping employees by this criteria (non-exempt status),the bonus plan can be automatically applied to only non-exempt employeesin all departments.

The platform 100 may support data independence techniques that may allowindependent update of parts of the model, such as those parts thatcorrespond to compensation or performance plans. In an example, oneplanning session may require a freeze on the reporting hierarchy whileanother planning session uses a continuously updated hierarchy. Dataindependence may also facilitate an alternate state of the whole modelthat allows modeling, “what-if” scenarios, and the like.

Separate datasets, also referred to herein as shadow datasets or shadowmodels may be created through the data independence framework forspecific application needs, such as salary or benefits planning Eachdataset may include rules that control which objects or data elementsmay be updated as information is provided to the platform from externalbusiness systems. A shadow of the entire model may also be created. Eachdata set starts with a copy of the current model, but may be configuredto stop receiving updates after some date, while the current data setcontinues to always reflect the latest data loads.

A performance-driven compensation application of the platform 100 mayaccess a current dataset. The current dataset contains objects thatreflect the latest information provided by the external businesssystems. Because external business systems provide data from a snapshotin time (e.g. “today”) the current dataset reflects that snapshot. Thecurrent dataset can be thought of as simply a dataset that does notfilter any changes resulting from an update of data from the externalbusiness systems. The current dataset may have no notion of what mayhave existed in the dataset before an update and there is no notion ofpending or future changes.

Data independence may allow each dataset to be configured to allowspecific updates and to prevent (freeze out) others through an updatefilter configuration feature. Because each data set is updated based onits update filter configuration, some data sets freeze all information,rejecting anything new, while others may reject all updates, or acceptonly certain types of information changes. Datasets can be configuredwith filters that only allow the updates that the filters are configuredto allow, while holding all of the other data in the dataset frozen.

The current dataset may be a reference copy of the latest data that maybe stored elsewhere in the model, such as in other datasets.Alternatively, the current data set may be a logical representation ofthe model based on using the current date to access an appropriateversion of each object in the model based on the effective datingmechanism described herein.

Referring to FIG. 6 which depicts how data independence may be usedadvantageously by business applications of the platform 100, a shadowmodel may be established when data independence is required for aparticular purpose, such as compensation planning FIG. 6 depicts thedomain model on the left side and the data independent shadow model onthe right side of the figure. Three instances of the domain model andthe shadow model are shown: instance A, B, and C. Instance A representsthe domain and shadow models when the shadow model is established tosupport a compensation planning session. A change is introduced into theplatform that may impact the data in the domain model and in the shadowmodel. The change introduced is a new address for an employee. Theresult of processing this change is shown in instance B of the domainmodel and the shadow model. In both the domain and the shadow model thechange may be implemented because this piece of data is determined tonot be relevant to the compensation planning session. A second change isintroduced. The second change is a change of the department of theemployee. Because this change is relevant to the compensation planningsession, it is implemented in the domain model but it is frozen out ofthe shadow model so that the compensation planning session can proceedwithout the change causing undesirable results. The impact of the secondchange is depicted in instance C in which the department change is madeto the domain model but not to the shadow model.

A user of the platform 100 may have reasons to want to have differentsets of data available to their employees and managers for variousbusiness application tasks. A focal-based compensation planning sessionmay require data that is updated differently (or not at all) than datafor an off-cycle based compensation planning session. Focal-basedplanning is done at a focal-point in time may involve looking at dataacross a static population—the populate in the organization at the timethe focal-based plan is being prepared). Off-cycle compensation planningis generally dominated by making changes based on current manager input,so currently updated data (rather than data frozen in time) may berequired. To support both of these needs, data independence facilitateseffectively stopping the updating of data for any group defined in theplatform 100. In one embodiment, data independence establishes theshadow model by making a copy of domain model data that a manager needsto run an application (e.g. comp planning) and freezing out anysubsequent changes to that copy of the data. By freezing the data forthe specific purpose, other uses (e.g. off-cycle) or other focal-pointactivities can make and see data changes made after data is frozen. Atsome point a user may want to open up the frozen data and update or notupdate the data. However, all changes made since the data was frozen maybe implemented. The manager who requested the data to be frozen may notbe able to choose which changes to allow.

The platform 100 may include pending state and pending world featuresthat may be useful to a benefits administration application becausetoday's decisions (e.g. an election of benefits) may result in a pendingstate, which includes pending approvals (e.g. changes are entered butare conditional and therefore do not take effect until they areapproved). A pending state could also be a declaration of a newdependent, which may require approval or simply an election which cannottake effect until evidence of qualification is received. Because thechanges are conditional until approved, they are independent from the‘current state of the model’ until the change is approved and effective.Therefore, pending states can be created in the platform so that thepending data is not used in activities before the pending data isapproved, such as sending data to the suppliers of these benefits.Another purpose of the pending world is to maintain a complete andup-to-date view of the model that would be in effect if all the pendingstate were approved, as the user may expect it to be once all theconditions are met.

Changes may be introduced while the pending state is still outstanding.Subsequent changes that do not require approval may be implementedduring the interval of time between when the election or change isentered and the approval is finalized. Therefore the platform 100supports updating both the current object and the pending state so thatchanges that are not pended are made during the pending event. Tosupport pending events and a pending world of pending events, anautomated function may be executed during compilation of the software tobe deployed for a client installation. This automated function maydetect model classes that require a pending event state and mayconfigure these classes to hold the pending event information when it isentered. In this way the current domain model or the pending events canbe accessed based on a set of rules rather than requiring a pendingidentifier to be accessed during run time or needing to switch between apending object and a current domain object.

In particular, each object may be associated with pending events. Anobject may be configured to have a pending state that is maintained in apending delegate which is accessible through the object based on anassertion of the pending state within a business application. A pendingdelegate may be a copy of an object that includes changes to elements ofthe object that are not yet approved (i.e.: pending changes). In anexample, when an employee makes a first pending decision, a pendingworld is created for that employee, and each object changed as a resultof that pending decision maintains those changes in its pendingdelegate. The pending world is asserted by the application whenfunctioning on behalf of an employee who has pending state at that time.A pending delegate is maintained in parallel with the object so that allnon-pending changes are implemented in the object and its pendingdelegate. If and when a pending change is approved, the approved changeis applied to the object through the object change process described inreference to the effective dating framework described here, thusensuring that all dependencies of the change are made within the objectand within the model. The information in the pending delegate that hasbeen approved is no longer pending, so if there are no other pendingchanges in the pending delegate, the pending delegate may be marked asdeleted from that time forward. If there are additional pending changesin the pending delegate, the pending delegate remains alive until allpending changes are either approved or denied, at which point thatpending world can be discarded. If the pending change is deniedapproval, it may be removed from the pending delegate and may bearchived for audit purposes and the pending world discarded.

The changes recorded in the pending delegate are only visible when anapplication specifically requests access to pending delegateinformation. This may be done through changing a context of theapplication that may be specific to an employee so that pendinginformation is returned from the object when the application accessesthe object. In an example, a business application of the platform 100may be serving multiple users at the same time, so the pending state maybe specific to a processing thread associated with a user. This allowsmultiple threads to keep separate pending state so that one user threadmay have no pending state and is shown only current information, andanother user thread accesses object data based on a pending worldestablished by pending state in that user thread.

A deployment of the platform 100 may be configured to support a pendingworld by configuring actions and activities to trigger the use of thepending state. With this global pending context set, changes to anaspect of an object that has been configured to handle pending eventsmay result in the automatic creation of a pending delegate. If thechanges are directed at an aspect that itself is configured to support apending state, a pending delegate of the object is created on demand bycreating a copy of the object and passing the change to be handled bythe delegate.

The pending state functionality may be implemented as part of theeffective dating framework where pending delegates and theirassociations to non-pending objects are both fully effective datedobjects.

The platform 100 provides a very flexible solution to managing deployedclient data that supports both the down-market and the complexenterprise market. The platform 100 supports building the databaseschema as part of the client deployment build process, such that aclient's data is maintained in its own database schema. This separationstrategy satisfies many clients' concerns about data separation fromother clients, and allows the flexibility to either co-locate the schemawith others in the same database instance, or dedicate an instance tothe client. This allows deploying more than one client's model andpersistent data within one physical or logical database without any riskof exposing client information to other clients. Clients without domainmodel customizations or build-time configuration can share theapplication binaries, since runtime configuration results in only datacontent changes and no change in application code or database schema.This per-schema client strategy also allows applying table-level orschema-level encryption on a client by client basis so that encryptionmay be applied for a first client and not for a second client within thesame database that is accessed by the same application binary.

Each client's data is maintained in a schema separate from otherclients' data. This has several benefits. Each schema has its own accesscredentials, which prevents one client from accessing the others data,and prevents an application from unintentionally mixing data from twoclients. This flexibility facilitates co-locating client deployments onvirtual or non-virtual environments based on scale, performance metrics,usage patterns, and the like. It helps to use the platform 100 toexploit the characteristics of the low-touch down-market client whilestill delivering on the strict requirements of the complexenterprise-class client within the same platform 100 architecture.

The platform may provide reporting facilities. The reporting facilitiesmay be accessible from each of a performance application, compensationapplication, benefits application, and any other application, userinterface, administrative interface, or data interface associated withthe platform. Reporting facilities may provide reports of informationstored in one or more databases and domain models associated with theapplications. Reports supported by the reporting facilities may includead-hoc, standard, custom, and other reports such as customized, templatebased, automatic, interactive, scheduled, and the like. The reportingfacilities may also interact with the domain model and one or moredatabases of the platform to generate one or more denormalized databases(e.g. reporting database) for facilitating reporting, such as customizedreporting. A denormalized database may include domain model information,database data, computed data, referenced data, indirect data,consolidated data, third party data, formatted data, variable data,report templates, and other data or calculations that allow a user toreport information based on the user's preferences. A denormalizeddatabase may be a compilation of information from one or more databasesof the platform, one or more domain models of the platform, datagathered from sources external to the platform, user defined computeddata, default computed data, and the like. The denormalized database maybe updated periodically, such as each day, thereby providing a timelysnapshot of information relevant to a user's reporting preferences. Inaddition to periodic updates, information in the denormalized databasemay be updated as needed, such as when information affecting a report ischanged in the domain model or database. Providing a denormalizeddatabase may also improve report response time because report requestsmay not have to access either the domain model or the full database.Providing a denormalized database may also allow the use of industrystandard or publicly available reporting software and techniques forreporting off of the denormalized database. A denormalized database maybe organized to further optimize report response time such as byarranging most frequently accessed data to be readily available. Adenormalized database may also be organized to allow a user to retrieveinformation, such as in a report, in ways that coordinate with theirbusiness processes, workflows, or preferences.

The custom reporting facilities may take advantage of the denormalizeddatabase and allow a user to report information out of the platform inways that the user would normally want to get data. With customreporting, the user may match reports to existing or predefined formatsin which a user's current business process generates data. In anexample, a user may already have various data in customized Access orExcel tables that, when viewed, present their data in a specific formator matching a preferred organization of the data. A custom report may beconfigured to deliver the required information to be viewed like theAccess or Excel tables.

The ad-hoc reporting facilities and standard reporting facilities mayquery the domain model for data to satisfy a report request. Byaccessing the domain model, instead of the database, ad-hoc and standardreporting may reduce the transactional loading of the database, therebyimproving overall platform performance. Reports based on the domainmodel may still query the database. However, they may benefit from usinga single implementation of logic in the objects (e.g. business layer),rather than requiring implementing reporting logic on top of raw dataand risking conflicts or taking on maintenance problems of duplicatedlogic. Alternatively, ad-hoc and standard reporting facilities may querythe denormalized database. Any type of reporting facility may access anyof the domain model, databases, and denormalized database as needed orspecified to retrieve data to satisfy report requests.

The platform may simultaneously support ad-hoc, standard, and customreporting so that a user may select one or more types of reporting ondemand. Custom reporting may be based on templates that may also be usedto organize or identify data to be retrieved, calculated, consolidatedand the like into the denormalized database. By identifying the datarequirements of the denormalized database based on the reports to begenerated from it, the denormalized database may be automaticallyadjusted based on a custom report template each time the denormalizeddatabase is updated. In an example, a user may provide a spreadsheetfile that contains the data in the format requested for a custom report.The user may reference the spreadsheet file when configuring a customreport through the platform. The platform may analyze the spreadsheet,such as the formulas, formats, data values, data names, macros, and thelike to generate a custom report template to replace the spreadsheetreport. At the next update of the denormalized database, such as a basedon a user request, the platform may access the domain model and thedatabase to retrieve relevant data, perform calculations as needed todeliver data that matches the spreadsheet data into the denormalizeddatabase.

Referring to FIG. 7 which depicts an exemplary report that has beengenerated from an updated denormalized database, exemplary data that maybe recorded in a denormalized database is shown. The denormalizeddatabase 712 may be updated through update process 708. The updateprocess 708 may reference custom report template 718 to determineaspects of data to be included in the denormalized database 712 update.Updating may include performing calculations, consolidation,extrapolation, sorting, and other operations on data such as data fromthe domain model 702 or the transactional database 704. Updating mayalso include copying data from any of the data sources. Updating mayinclude modifying one or more preexisting entries in the denormalizeddatabase 712 so that data associated with a preexisting entry reflectsdata provided by the update process 708. Updating the denormalizeddatabase 712 may also include replacing entries, creating new entries,deleting entries, replacing a portion or the entire denormalizeddatabase 712, creating an alternate to an existing denormalized database712, and the like. Updating portions of the denormalized database 712may include incremental updates to one or more entries. In an example ofincremental updating, the update process 708 may compare data from apreexisting entry in the denormalized database 712 to updated data forthe preexisting entry and apply the updated data based on the results ofthe comparison. If the updated data is different than the preexistingdata, the update process 708 may replace the preexisting entry data withthe updated data. If the comparison result indicates the updated data isnot different, then the preexisting entry data may not be replaced withthe updated data.

The denormalized database 712 may include a date/time field that mayindicate the date and/or time of the most recent update. The date/timefield may apply to the entire denormalized database 712, a portion ofthe denormalized database 712, or individual entries in the denormalizeddatabase 712. The date/time field may be used by the update process 708to determine which preexisting entries in the denormalized database 712to update. Data provided to the update process 708 may include a similardate/time field to indicate the most recent change to the data. Theupdate process 708 may compare the date/time of the most recent changeof the source data with the date/time of the most recent update of thepreexisting data to determine which data to update. In an example use ofdate/time fields associated with updating the denormalized database 712,a preexisting entry in the denormalized database 712 may have mostrecently been updated yesterday and its associated source data may havebeen most recently changed today. The update process 708 may determinethat the source data has changed more recently than the preexisting datahas been updated and, as a result replace the preexisting data with theupdated data. The update process 708 may query the domain model 702and/or the transaction database 704 so that only data changed morerecently than the most recent update of the denormalized database 712 isprovided. In this way, the update process 708 may utilize the querycapabilities of the platform when updating the denormalized database712.

The template 718 may identify aspects of data associated with a customreport 714. The update process 708 may reference the template 718 whenrequesting or obtaining data for reporting. The template 718 may includeone or more data fields that may identify an entry or entries in thedomain model 702 and/or the transactional database 704. The data fieldsmay include employee name, employee salary, compensation cycle, and thelike. A template may identify data that does not exist in any datasource and therefore may have to be produced; such as by update process708. Denormalized database 712 data that has to be produced mayalternatively be produced by one more applications, such as acompensation application and stored in the domain model 702, thetransaction database 704 or another data storage that may be accessed byupdate process 708. Data that may be produced may include variouscomputations, calculations, and other combinations or processing ofsource data. In an example of produced data, current employee quartilemay be calculated from current employee compensation package, andcompensation quartiles. In the example, if the employee compensationpackage is $134,266 and the third quartile covers a compensation rangeof $120,000 to $150,000, the employee compensation quartile would becomputed to be the third quartile. This computed data may be stored inthe denormalized database 712 so that it could be reported by the customreport facility 710 and presented to a user, such as the example customreport 714 of FIG. 7.

The platform may support various templates. Templates that may be usedby the update process 708 may include spreadsheet work files or workbooks from applications such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Works, andthe like. Template formats supported may include xml files, customreport format files, existing compensation, performance, and benefitsreport generation format files, and the like. A template may identifyspecific data entries, data entry types, data groups, data sources,various other aspects of data, and the like.

A plurality of templates 718 may be associated with a custom reportingfacility 710 to support generating various custom reports. Each templatemay identify data to be included in an update of the denormalizeddatabase 712. The update process 708 may combine templates so that datathat is common to more than one template 718 may be retrieved from thedomain model 702 and/or the transactional database 804 once. The commondata may be stored in the denormalized database 712 in more than onelocation so as to facilitate generating custom reports 714.Alternatively, data commonly identified in more than one template 718may be stored as a single entry in the denormalized database 712.

The platform may support ad-hoc reporting that may be used to easilycreate reports. Ad-hoc reporting may directly access the domain model,the transactional database, or may report from the denormalizeddatabase. Ad-hoc reporting may facilitate a user creating a set ofreport preferences that may be used in a query of the model to filter orselect preexisting model objects for reporting. Ad-hoc reporting may betemplate based, menu based, code based, and the like. A query languagesuch as SQL may be used in an ad-hoc reporting facility. The platformmay support creating a user specific ad-hoc profile, storing theuser-specific profile, exporting report data to third party softwaresuch as Microsoft Excel, generating ad-hoc reports in HTML, PDF, andother display formats.

The platform may support standard reporting. Standard reporting maysupport predefined reports. Standard reporting may be template-based tofacilitate deployment and integration. Ad-hoc and standard reporting mayreport off of the domain model rather than the transactional database.

Referring to FIG. 8, compensation, performance, and benefitsapplications may be combined in one product that may provide a uniquelyemployee-centric human resource management platform—a comprehensivehuman capital management (HCM) platform 800. This may include pullingthe entire benefits administration application into theperformance-driven compensation application to produce a HCM platform800 that provides capabilities beyond a straightforward combination ofapplications because various user roles will have the ability to do arainbow of activities within the HCM 800 based on the services that aredeployed. A user role may encompass a benefits client role, acompensation client role and a performance/succession client role as anemployee, hr manager, administrator, benefits manager, and the like.

The HCM 800 may be configured to take advantage of group managerhierarchy features to consolidate rules within the combined businessapplications and to leverage the sophisticated capabilities of security,data independence, data isolation, and the like to ensure each user rolehas proper visibility to relevant data while excluding access tonon-relevant or sensitive user data. This concept of visibility may bemoved to a lower level or to an application specific level in the HCM800. The HCM may be embodied as an integrated management suite that maybe accessible through a single user interface screen.

Referring to FIG. 9A a user-centric overall offering may depict anoverall offering employee view 902 of services available through the HCM800. These services may pertain to health (‘My Health’ 904), finance(‘My Wealth’ 908), workflow (‘My Work’ 910), career development (‘MyCareer’ 912), and some other types of services relevant to the employee.The overall offering employee view 902 may be designed in order toprovide at least a visual segregation of these services.

The ‘My Health’ 904 service may provide the employee with applicationsrelated to health services such as support for health decisions, optionsand choices regarding health care providers, administration service forhealth benefits, health risk assessments available, events andpromotions, and some other services. For example, through ‘My Health’904 service, the employee may be able to obtain information related to afree eye check up camp organized by a health agency. In an embodiment ofthe present invention, such events and promotions may be organized incoordination with the employer of the employee.

The entities that may be interfacing with this service of the HCMplatform 800 may include content providers that may supplement theinformation and content related to health services and benefits;decision support parties that may assist with the decision orientedactivities (e.g., choice of health care provider); and other thirdparties. For example, health care events may be hosted by other thirdparties such as hospitals, NGOs, cultural organizations (Rotary Clubs,Red Cross, among others), and some other third parties.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the other thirdparties may also be involved with solution integration.

The ‘My Wealth’ 908 service may provide the employee with applicationsrelated to financial services such as deposit account (e.g., facilities,statements), beneficiary and compensation benefits (e.g., bonus,overtime payments), life insurance (e.g., premiums), disabilitycompensations, payroll statements, and some other types of financialservices. For example, through ‘My Wealth’ 908 service, the employee maybe able to access the monthly statement regarding the compensation andbenefits accrued or the employee may be able to directly submit premiumpayments for medical or life insurance through this service.

Payroll department, Human Resource Information System (HRIS), and thirdparties such as insurance companies are the entities that may interactthrough this service.

Similarly, the ‘My Work’ 910 service may be responsible for providing acollection of workflow oriented applications and services to theemployee. These applications and services may include but may not belimited to goals and evaluations, compensation and salary plans,dashboards and workbox, feedback, and some other applications andservices. For example, the employee may be able to view various salaryoptions provided by the company, such as fixed or variable component ofthe salary, and may be able to customize the salary structure accordingto the needs. In another example, dashboards and workbox applicationsmay facilitate better management of workflow and productivity. Inaddition, these dashboards may provide effective visualization orpresentation options (e.g., providing a graph or chart to track theprogress of ongoing projects). Feedback, appraisals, evaluations, andrecommendations may also be submitted and viewed by the employeesthrough this service.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the ‘My Work’910 service may also include best practices and market data related toworkflow. For example, this service may complement other services thatmay help the overall workflow (e.g., time-tracker services).

Likewise, the ‘My Career’ 912 service may be focused on the careerdevelopment aspects of the employee. This service may include variousapplications related to career development and planning, succession orpromotion planning, competencies (specialized or generic), and someother types of applications. For example, the employee may be providedwith some additional training and certification courses for enhancementof skill set.

The ‘My Career’ 912 service may involve other entities such asconsulting services, learning management service providers, ATS, andsome other options for supporting career oriented needs of the employee.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a third partysolution integration facility 914 may be provided to unify variousservices (related to employee's health, wealth, work, and career) of theHCM platform 800.

The overall offering employee view 902 benefits the overall humanresource management process by providing an active and effectiveenvironment for employee engagement in various human resourceactivities, rewards for both the employer and the employee in terms ofwork, productivity, and benefits; a transparent solution for drivingpay-for-performance, and a consumer-driven human resource.

FIG. 9B depicts an overall offering administrator view 918 for humanresource (HR) administrative and executive team. The administrator view918 may include services pertaining to health (Corporate Health′ 920),finance (Corporate Wealth′ 922), workflow (Corporate Work′ 924), careerdevelopment (Corporate Career′ 928), and some other types of services(i.e., for all the employees). The applications in these services mayhelp the HR administrative and executive team assess various trends andindicators pertaining to employees' health, finance, workflow, andcareer.

The ‘Corporate Health’ 920 may include applications related to healthand wellness rewards and benefits, tool utilization and employeeengagement (indicators and trends), health plan migration summaries andother documentations. For example, a dashboard may be provided in‘Corporate Health’ 920 that tracks the number of sick leaves availed bythe employees. In addition, such a dashboard may provide facilities forrewarding employees who have not taken any sick leave in a given period.The rewards may be monetary, gifts, vouchers, coupons, certifications,and some other types of rewards.

The other service in the corporate interface screen 918 may include the‘Corporate Wealth’ 922. This service may include applications such asdashboards for audit trails, pre-tax plan counts (e.g., FederalInsurance Contributions Act (FICA) savings estimator), voluntary planparticipation, aggregated compensation statements, dependent auditdashboards, and some other types of applications.

Similarly, the ‘Corporate Work’ 924 service may encompass workflowactivities with regard to the entire organization. Some of theapplications in this service may be employee performance trends, companyplans and budget compliance indicators, goal achievement progressindicators, and some others. For example, the ‘Corporate Work’ 924service may provide the invoice status of all projects. In anotherscenario, sales per employee ratios or workforce productivity ratios maybe provided by this service for assessing the overall productivity ofthe organization.

Yet another service, ‘Corporate Career’ 928 may include a compilation ofevery employee's Key Performance Areas (KPAs), corporate goal librariesor repositories, a dashboard for reviewing performanceappraisals/evaluations and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), internalfill rates, competency aggregations, organization's standards, codes ofconduct, and some other applications and functionalities. For example, abrief overview (requirements, procedure, preparations, guidelines, etc.)regarding the hiring process may be provided by ‘Corporate Career’ 928.

In accordance with another embodiment, various aspects of corporatecareer such as ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ or ‘EmployeeInitiatives’ may also be provided by this service.

Configuration is a means by which a system's look or behavior can bechanged to meet client requirements without programming. Configurationin the platform 100 includes model-based aspects, primarily through anXML file that includes structures, data, parameterized strategies, andscripting to tailor the platform's look and feel and behavior. Theplatform 100 may support build-time configuration that may be appliedbefore the platform 100 is deployed to produce a targeted solution.Build-time configuration may provide a way that the platform 100 canmaintain speed and scalability by having the configuration compiled intothe platform 100 rather than manipulated as data at runtime. Mostconfigurations of the platform 100, however, are runtime configuration,which can be loaded into a running platform 100 without taking it downand rebuilding it. Some types of effective dated configuration may beloaded while the platform 100 is running, without affecting currentusers.

The platform 100 offers several means for configuring applicationsincluding offline configuration tools, online configuration tools, userinterface configuration, and the like. Offline configuration may besupported through configuration files that are loaded as XML files andmay be created by configuration programs, filed, and the like that maybe associated with the platform 100. These tools may enable businessanalysts to create the configurations through intuitive user interfaces,and export them into XML files. The files may be used in build-timeconfiguration or used in run-time configuration and loaded into arunning system. These tools are especially beneficial if theconfiguration model is complex or effective dated. Online configurationmay partitioned so that a subset of runtime configuration may beavailable only to authorized users through application functionality,such as: administrator functionality that facilitates changing thedetails of a dimensional guideline rule, adjusting bonus calculations orupdating performance ratings; role management that may facilitatedefining roles and managing assignments to individuals and groups; groupmanagement that may facilitate maintaining reporting hierarchies, budgetgroups and other group and hierarchical organizations of employees; andthe like. Configuration capabilities of the platform may include userinterface configuration. The platform may support several configurationpoints in the user interface, such as: internationalization that may besupported through configurable resource files, for locale-specific text,formats, and content; application configuration files that may be loadedinto the presentation tier to configure application flow; cascadingstyle sheets that may be used to tailor the look and feel of the userinterface; and the like.

The human resource management platform 100 may include data accesscomponents or elements for insulating applications and services from thedetails of data transformation and mapping. Data access components mayinclude features that facilitate persistence of data, such as singledomain objects such as a “noun” or a “component”. Persistence of dataattributes such as mapping of data formats may also be provided by thedata access components. Data access components may also provide servicesfor the human resource management platform 100 such as creating,reading, updating, and deleting data. Aspects of the human resourcemanagement platform 100 that may use data access components include,without limitation, internal applications, business services, externalapplications, and the like. Data access components may be implemented bybuilding XML documents from SQL/JDBC results sets.

The human resource management platform 100 may include a plurality ofdata access components wherein each component may provide data accessservices as herein described for different data sources. For example, adata source such as a third party employee insurance database mayrequire a different set of data access functions than an internalemployee vacation accounting database. Reading a record from theexternal insurance database may include mapping data such as employeeinsurance member ID so that automatic premium payments may be properlycredited by the human resource management platform 100.

As changes are made to data sources, an associated data access componentmay, or may not, need to change to support the changed data source. Inan example, a data source that is changed to include security featuresassociated with a user interface of the data source, may not impact thedata access component for that data source. Whereas, a data source thatchanged field names or definitions may impact a data access component,requiring a new mapping between the data source and the human resourcemanagement platform 100 functions or business services accessing thedata source. Data access components may combine, dissect, generate, andpersist XML documents to facilitate business functions and servicesperforming tasks.

The user interface gives end users information they need to makedecisions, and those decisions ultimately result in changes persisted inthe database. This section describes Workscape Technology Platformcapabilities that enable our application suite to maintain and storedata accurately and efficiently.

The platform 100 may include an object model and may implementobject-relational mapping. Application logic may be centered in abusiness logic layer 204 on a server, such as in an object modelimplemented in Java. Generally, a good object design combines state andbehavior. In the platform 100, the behavior may be embodied in businesslogic and encapsulated in object methods. When changes to dataassociated with the model are committed, the object state is translatedto the database in an automated fashion, such as by using JBossHibernate, an object-relational mapping tool. Hibernate is an example ofa tool that can be adapted to successfully manage large amounts of data,such as by revising code to enhance the tool.

Transactions with the model and database may be most effective if theyare controlled outside the business logic layer 204. In the platform100, transactions are initiated before application logic is invoked andthe application logic signals synchronization points to the persistentdatabase 114 so that the actual transaction management is performed bythe underlying persistence layer 208, adding security and robustness tothe platform 100.

The platform 100 provides support for enterprise level and down marketsmall size client deployments. Features of the platform 100 may minimizeeffort for deploying to low-complexity clients, such as alternative datainput, no customization, limited configurability, deployment options,and the like. Alternate data input may include input via spreadsheets sothat clients with limited volume and complexity may be able to providetheir data through spreadsheets that may be supplied with the platform100. The spreadsheet may have embedded functionality that automates thetransformation and loading of information, giving the customer morecontrol and limiting deployment or startup effort. Becausecustomizations take time and expertise they add to implementation costs.When client requirements fall within the range of configurability of theplatform 100 (e.g. within run-time configurability), the platform 100can be quickly configured and programming may not be required. Further,when client requirements can fit within a limited set of configurableoptions, the time to configure the system is reduced, and someconfiguration responsibility may be transferred to the client. Testingtime may also be drastically reduced. As described above, the platform100 may store each client data in its own schema, which facilitateseasier deployment through a template approach for configuration,installation, and use, and template use for supporting third party dataconfiguration ERPS, such as SAP, and the like.

The deployment of the platform 100 may involve a single package of filesand several scripts to complete integration with a client environment.One or more business applications can run on a computing resource, suchas a virtualized resource, with one or more clients being served by theapplications. A database server can host multiple client deployments perdatabase instance or place clients in a separate database instance. Theplatform may support deploying all components of the platform 100 ondedicated hardware, or packaged into an appliance for remote hostingwithin a firewall protected network. Deployment may also supportdeploying different portions of the platform (presentation layer,business application layer, model layer, and data persistence layer, forexample) to be executed on different systems to facilitate distributedprocessing environments.

The human resource management platform 100 may include a user interfacethat may be accessed through a web browser of a computer such as anetworked computer facility. The user interface may include variousscreens for facilitating a user interacting with the platform 100. Inaddition to the various screens as herein described for interacting withapplications, and the like, the user interface may also facilitatingissuing alerts to users. Alerts may be issued based on a range ofcriteria that is described elsewhere herein. An alert issued through theuser interface may include a configurable visual indication on acomputer display such as a pop-up window, or other visual notification.The alert may include a configurable audible aspect as well that mayplay through a speaker system of the computer through which the userinterface is accessed. Alerts may be context specific so that an alertissued through the user interface may be based at least in part on thecurrent activity of the user. In an example, a visual alert of aviolation of a budget guideline may be presented to the user while theuser is modifying budgets. Alerts may also be included in real-timedecision support features of the human resource management platform 100.

The user interface, or one or more portions of the user interface, maybe based on computer programming technology including without limitationDHTML, ADOBE FLEX, AJAX, JAVA, JAVASCRIPT, ADOBE FLASH, a combinationthereof, or a combination of one or more thereof and other computerprogramming languages, constructs, technology, images, graphics, menus,and the like.

Alerts presented through the user interface may guide the user in such away that the user can take appropriate action by interacting with thealert. In an example, a user may be changing a budget allocation thatimpacts another user's budget. An alert indicating that the other user'sbudget is impacted may be issued to the user and may provide a one-clickaction button to notify the other user of the budget impact. The alertmay also provide a one-click action button to escalate the alert toother users, such as those higher in the user's reporting hierarchy.

The Workscape Technology Platform provides a robust security model thatcombines an adaptable authentication mechanism with role-basedauthorization. The platform provides standard integration points forconnecting it into the client's SSO of choice. For clients who do notwish to integrate into an authentication service, the platform suppliesan alternate username and password authentication model, withconfigurable password generation and management. Authorization iscontrolled by configuration of roles and permissions, and associatingroles with individuals or groups of individuals. Permissions are keysthat unlock product functionality, and open access to certain type ofinformation to those who hold the permission. Roles can be created andconfigured that bundle together sets of these permissions, and then theroles can be assigned to individual users or assigned automatically tothose who meet certain criteria. The platform automatically resolves thepermissions granted to a user when the user logs in, and enforces thedata visibility and functionality restrictions at a very low level,below where configuration or business logic operates. Permissions areused to control visibility to data at a low level in the architecture.Queries into the database are filtered at a low level, to avoid pullinginformation into the system that the user is not authorized to access.

Authorized users are recognized when they log in and are presented withadditional administration functions based on their roles. Administratorsmay have access to functionality, or read-only access to certainemployee data, or full rights to act as certain employees. Certainadministrators may also be able to affect runtime configurationparameters of the application, changing its behavior in real time. Thehuman resource management platform 100 may include information that isconfidential and personal about employees, employers, corporate orbusiness plans, and the like. To facilitate providing appropriateprotection of such confidential and personal information, the userinterface of the human resource management platform may include securityservices. Security services such as unique user names, user login names,secret passwords, authority access levels, and the like may be embodiedin the human resource management platform 100. The user interface mayinclude initial login validation through a secure access method such asrequiring a potential user to enter a user name and associated secretpassword. This first level of security may be configurable through oneor more services such as UpdateUser, ProcessLogin, and CancelLogin. Anauthorized administrator may access one or more of these services toestablish and manage user accounts for the purposes of securing thehuman resource management platform 100 login processes. Alternatively,one or more of these services may be automated and may be invoked by auser interacting with the human resource management platform 100 througha login screen of the user interface. In an example, an administratormay invoke the UpdateUser service to change a user password, such as inresponse to a request from the user. In another example, a user maysuccessfully login to the human resource management platform 100 with avalid username and password and manually invoke the UpdateUser serviceto change an aspect of the user's account (e.g. password). A usermanually invoking UpdateUser may be considered a self-service aspect ofthe human resource management platform 100. Services such asProcessLogin and CancelLogin may be invoked automatically. In anexample, a user selecting a ‘login’ type button on a login screen of theuser interface may automatically invoke the ProcessLogin service toperform user credential validation. If the credential validation fails,CancelLogin may be automatically invoked. Manual use of these servicesmay support an administrator creating login credentials for a useraccount (ProcessLogin) or removing a user (CancelLogin).

The human resource management platform 100 may include publicationchange services to facilitate publishing changes to data or dataelements. Changes to data, such as databases of the human resourcemanagement platform 100 that are made by both internal and externalapplications may be published. In an example, an internal applicationthat makes a change to employee email contact information may publishthat information so that subscribers to the publication change servicemay receive the updated employee email contact information. Similarly,an external application, such as a third party health insuranceapplication, may publish information about changes to employee status(e.g. change in coverage selected, change in coverage status) and thelike. Publication change services may also provide queue management forsubscribers to the service so that a higher priority publication may bepushed higher in a queue of a subscriber than a lower prioritypublication. In this way, urgent changes or changes that may be requiredto fully support subsequent changes may be processed before less urgentor dependent changes. Internet publication and change notificationmethods such as RSS may be supported by the publication change servicesof the human resource management platform 100.

The human resource management platform 100 may use a publication changeservice to manage subscription to third party or external applicationsto facilitate receiving information. The business functions and otherelement of the human resource management platform 100 may use thepublication change services to facilitate timely updating any externallysupplied data used by the business functions. Such inbound data may bepublished to the human resource management platform 100 with certainpolicies and attributes determined by the source system of the data. Thepublication change services may process the attributes to ensurecompliance with the policies is maintained as data is published withinthe human resource management platform 100. Publication methods such asRSS may be included in the publication change services inboundcapabilities.

Publication change services may work cooperatively with other elementsof the human resource management platform 100 so that the publicationchange service may receive a confirmation of receipt from the otherelements. Alternatively, the publication change service may issueannouncements or push changes to subscribers without accepting orrequiring a confirmation of receipt.

The publication change services may monitor a data repository or someportion of a data repository so that any changes made to the datarepository can be published. Monitoring may be based on events—such aschanges, on a schedule—such as each hour, on a request—such as abusiness function initiated subscription request, and the like. Althoughthe publication change services may monitor a data repository to detectchanges to the repository, the publication change service may beconfigured to only publish certain data elements or classes of elements.In an example, a data repository that contains employee confidential andnon-confidential information may be monitored, yet only changes to thenon-confidential information may be published when a change is detected.The human resource management platform 100 may support data in a datarepository that can be published without using the full capabilities ofthe publication change services. In an example, data in XML file formatin a data repository may be published to applications of the humanresource management platform 100 that use XML formatted data simply bytransferring the XML formatted data to the applications.

Elements of the human resource management platform 100, such as internalapplications, business services, business functions, data accesscomponents, platform services, publication change services, and the likemay use XML or JAVA to communicate. XML Schema such as OAGIS 8.0 andHR-XML standards may be employed in communications. Communications mayalso be accomplished by forming, exchanging, and decoding BusinessObject Documents that may themselves be encoded in XML. A businessobject document of the human resource management platform 100 mayinclude an application area (e.g. for identifying a sender) and a dataarea (e.g. for defining a business operation).

A business object document may include an XML verb—such as add, delete,lookup, and the like, and a noun—such as a data value, data field, andthe like. A business function or service receiving the business objectdocument may use the data referenced in the noun to perform the functiondescribed by the verb. In an example, an UpdateDependents verb with aDependent noun may add the name of the dependent to the employee's listof dependents. The business service or function that performed theUpdateDependents may provide a business object document response thatincludes information such as date of update, status of the update, flagsor messages returned by the business service, and the like. The businessobject document communication flow may include request-response XML verbpairs that define a service method. In an example, a lookupDependentsbusiness service method accepts an XML document conforming to theLookupDependents schema and responds with an XML document conforming tothe ShowDependents schema. Communicating through business objectdocuments also facilitate making changes to functions, services, andapplications, such as program or algorithm changes, without having tochange aspects of the communication or the interfaces to the humanresource management platform 100 elements.

Business object documents may be used in communication between the humanresource management platform 100 and external services, applications,users, devices, and the like. To provide security, and maintaincompatibility with industry standard messaging and communicationsystems, a business object document may be wrapped in an envelope suchas is used in web service requests defined by S O A P. Security, errorchecking, and the like may be supported by through the envelopingprocess, thereby allowing the human resource management platform 100elements to focus on the content of the business object document.

The human resource management platform 100 may also include businessservices to provide service to applications. Business services mayinclude managerial services for managing proxies and authoritydelegation, payroll services for processing employee related pay,compensation services for planning and managing compensation plans andprograms, benefits services for beneficiary and dependent management,communication services for handling corporate communications, corporateservices for corporate wide data such as job descriptions anddirectories, worklist services for individuals to access work items,self-service services for employees to access and maintain information,security services for managing users and access, budgeting services foradministering and monitoring budgets, reporting services, integrationservices for providing transfer management, hierarchy services forestablishing and maintaining employee hierarchies, process services fordefining and monitoring business processes, and performance managementservices for facilitating performance rating and goals management.

The platform may support off-cycle changes to any aspect ofcompensation, performance, and benefits. Off-cycle changes may beintegrated with focal transactions so that a user, such as a manager,may access and maintain both off-cycle and focal transactions through asingle user interface. Such integration may facilitate giving a managerthe ability to plan all compensation changes for an entire compensationcycle (e.g. one calendar year) through a single interface. The sameinterface may be used throughout the year for off-cycle changes andmaintenance, such as for approving a compensation plan and for acting onthe approved plan. The single user interface for focal and off-cyclechanges may also be facilitated by budget sharing, application logic andrule sharing, and the like. In an example, an employee may achieve aperformance goal that has associated with it a compensation increase.The employee achieves the performance goal in May and the next on-cyclecompensation adjustment is December, so the employee's manager initiatesan off-cycle change. The manager may use the single interface hereindescribed to perform all the necessary steps to execute the off-cycleadjustment. In this example, because the compensation adjustment isincluded in the compensation plan since it was tied to a performancegoal, the manager may review and approve the change to the employee'scompensation plan through the single interface. The manager may, withinthe same interface establish any new compensation plans, such as anychanges that may be approved at the end of the current compensationcycle. A single interface for focal and off-cycle compensation,performance, or benefits changes and maintenance eliminates needing tolearn separate interfaces for off-cycle and on-cycle compensationplanning and maintenance activity. The single interface also allowsautomatic coordinated access to plans and budgets, rather than using adisconnected off-cycle system, such as separate spreadsheets. Suchdisconnected or off-line methods prove impractical and error prone whenapplied to organizations with a large number of employees.

The human resource management platform 100 may include applicationstargeted to solve a variety of human resource and benefitsadministration problems. Applications of the human resource managementplatform 100 may include business applications such as benefitsadministration. A benefits administration application may provide acomprehensive benefits administration solution that facilitates handlinga wide variety of benefits plans, programs, events, changes relating toplans and employees, very large employee populations, cross companyintegration, third party integration and the like. By joining a benefitsadministration application with a scalable human resource managementplatform, a benefits administration solution may facilitate extendingbest-in-class benefit programs throughout a multi-national organization.Applications of the human resource management platform 100 may beimplemented based on various technologies to provide easy integration.In an example, applications may be written in the Java programminglanguage, and they may be built using domain-driven design principleswith a web-based rich client interface using ADOBE FLEX technology.

A benefits administration application may provide a variety of featuresto achieve benefits integration in an organization. A user interface ofthe application may include presenting all relevant information, featureselection, notifications, and user information on one computer displayscreen, or a linked group of screens. Such a user interface mayfacilitate operation and training to operate the application, whilepreserving time efficiency during use or maintenance.

The human resource management platform 100 may facilitate automatedbenefits review workflows through the use of online benefit reviewforms. The online benefit review forms may be integrated with the otheraspects of the human resource management platform 100 such as employeemanagement, benefits provider management, corporate objectives, and thelike to facilitate use and data consistency throughout all the aspectsof human resource management supported by the human resource managementplatform 100. Online benefit review forms may include configurablebenefit review forms that support the best practices of the corporation.Aspects of the forms may be configurable specifically to ensure bestpractices are observed, while other aspects of the form may beconfigurable to support individual manager or employee needs.

The human resource management platform 100 may also support onlinebenefit review form creation and management. The human resourcemanagement platform 100 may also support template based creation ofonline benefit review forms. In an example, a template may identifyspecific configurable areas of a benefit review form that may bespecified by a facilitator of the human resource management platform100. These areas may include corporate best practices, industry orgovernment standard review criteria, employee based information fromother aspects of the human resource management platform 100, and thelike. The template may also include user configurable areas that may beconfigured by a manager and/or an employee to support aspects of benefitreview not covered elsewhere in the form. In an example, a benefitsprovider portion of a benefit review form may be identified in atemplate as restricted from manager or employee changes because theinformation would be imported from the benefits provider managementportion of the human resource management platform 100.

Online benefit review forms may facilitate harmonizing benefits reviewacross departments, business units, geographies, subsidiaries,languages, and international laws, while offering the flexibility tosupport a wide variety of management styles, employee input, benefitsadministration plans, and the like.

A benefits administration application may include reporting facilities.Reporting may include standard reports and ad hoc reporting capabilitiesto support a wide range of reporting requirements. Reporting andanalytics that may be integrated with the benefits administrationapplication within the human resource management platform 100 mayfacilitate easy access to actionable data and analysis results. In anexample, an analysis of benefits, such as a coverage analysis, may beincluded in the benefits administration application so that the coverageanalysis may be reported per employee, per group, and the like.

The human resource management platform 100 may include audit featuressuch as audit trails. Audit features may be associated with the benefitsadministration application. Audit features may support establishingaudit monitoring tools to facilitate automated auditing of transactionsassociated with the platform. Automated auditing may facilitatecompliance with accounting and other standards such as Sarbanes Oxley,OSHA, Fair Labor Standards Act, Minimum Wage Standards, and the like.Auditing may include confirming an effective benefits function has beenestablished, all employee data in the system is accurate and appropriateto the personal issues of the employee, confidentiality of personneldata is maintained, benefits data is completely and accuratelyaccumulated in underlying financial records in the proper accountingperiods, reimbursements and other payments to employees (e.g. basicpayments, tax adjusted payments, and the like) are properly calculatedand authorized, tax legislation is being followed (national and locallegislation) including entry verification, benefits costs are in linewith budgeting objectives, and the like. Audit trails may facilitaterecovery of entries, downloads, and changes in data associated with theplatform 100. Feedback logs may be associated with the benefitsadministration application so that any form of feedback such as employeefeedback, auditor feedback, visitor feedback, manager feedback, vendorfeedback, provider feedback, and the like may be recorded. Feedback logsmay periodically be reviewed by management, an administrator of thebenefits administration application, or other participant in theplatform 100. The review of feedback logs may be automated by a computersystem performing keyword matching of feedback logs against a list ofcritical keywords or phrases. This may allow a feedback log entry thatmeets a criterion associated with keyword and keyphrase matching mayautomatically be presented to an administrator, management, or otherappropriate participant in the platform 100. In this way, although allfeedback logs may be recorded and permanently stored, those meeting anescalation criterion are sure to receive a human review by theappropriate person.

The benefits administration application may facilitate configuration ofbenefit programs. Benefit programs may be configured by a participant ofthe human resource management platform 100 such as a client. Benefitprogram configuration may include configuring benefit plans, futureaccounting periods (e.g. upcoming year benefit target plans), and thelike. Configuration options associated with the benefits administrationapplication may accommodate complex benefit plans, such as plans thatincorporate automated benefits adjustments, and the like.

The human resource management platform 100 may be associated with inputcompliance verification facilities. Compliance of input may be valuableand useful to a benefits administration application by providingspelling checking, legal language checking, and the like. Compliance ofinput verification may include verifying input meets corporate and legalstandards (e.g. minimum wage standards), and the like. Spelling checkingmay facilitate reducing mistakes in data records such as employee names.In an example, an employee name being input may be compared to all validemployee names and the input may be flagged for further verification ifit does not match any of the valid employee names. This may also beuseful to help distinguish between similar employee names, such asemployees Robert Smith from Bobby Smith when the name Bob Smith isentered. Legal language check may facilitate ensuring that benefits orother requirements on which benefits may be based does not violate anyregulations, contracts, and the like

Benefits modeling may be associated with the human resource managementplatform 100 such as through a benefits administration application.Modeling benefits may be useful and beneficial to employee retentionplanning by providing a visible or tangible benefit to achieving a levelof employee retention included in the modeling. The benefitsadministration application may allow employees to interact with theplatform 100 to model various benefits alternatives based on aspects ofbenefits such as coverage, costs, providers, geographic coveragelimitations, optional coverage, and the like. In an example, an employeewho is interested in purchasing additional life insurance coverage mayview the costs, eligibility conditions, limits, and other requirementsof the coverage through the platform. The employee can further modelsteps for achieving various aspects of the requirements, such as takingand passing a physical exam or other medical assessment. In this way,the employee may determine that passing the physical exam is highestpriority for eligibility.

Conventionally, benefits programs have been administered on a plan-yearbasis that shoehorns all employees into one planning and election cyclethat is based on a calendar date rather than on natural dates related toemployee needs for benefits. A plan-year based benefits program maylimit changes an employee can make during the plan-year. This generallyresults in limited options being available to the employee other thanduring an open enrollment period prior to the start of a new plan-year.The benefits administration management business application of theplatform 100 provides support for coverage periods that are distinctfrom but knowledgeable of plan-year programs. A coverage period mayinclude any timeframe during which no changes are made to anemployee-specific benefits program. Therefore, each coverage period canbe individually managed. This reduces the complexity of real worldchanges that occur outside of a plan-year enrollment period. In acoverage period example, an employee who has a baby and changes healthplan options from an employee plus spouse plan to a family plan wouldenter an event that would signify the end of one coverage period and thestart of another coverage period. The one coverage period would becharacterized by the employee plus spouse plan and the other coverageperiod would be characterized by the family plan. A change that causesone coverage period to end and a new one to start may be employeegenerated, company generated, provider generated, a combination of thetwo, and the like. In another coverage period example, a company mayconfigure benefits premiums to be adjusted annually due to healthinsurance provider requirements. The date on which the premiums areadjusted would signify the start of a new coverage period for allaffected employees.

The platform may facilitate support for benefits coverage periodsthrough the effective dating framework described herein. When effectivedating is applied in conjunction with coverage periods, benefitsselections can be planned for a future coverage period while the currentcoverage period may be maintained within the same model/database. Theeffective dating framework advantages for a benefits administrationmanagement business application may be described through an example. Inthe example, a company using the platform 100 has defined a new coverageperiod to start January first. Therefore, in November, employees makebenefit elections to be effective when the new coverage period starts.When the elections are made, the platform automatically calculates allthe coverage changes through the remainder of the year under the currentyear rules, and propagates the changes into the next year, correcting oradjusting based on next year rules, and stores all the results in theeffective dated model. To provide benefits information for the currentcoverage period, the platform 100 may set a target effective date to“today” and perform a query of the model based on this target date. Toprovide benefits information for the new coverage period, the platformmay set a target effective date to “January” and perform a query of themodel based on this target date.

To provide a an accurate view of the benefits information for the newcoverage period starting in January, the benefits administrationapplication may set the target effective date to some time in January sothat queries of the model will return information that is based on thebenefits elected for the new coverage period. This may allow sendingextracts of data to a carrier that the carrier can use for planning ofthe new coverage period elections. To the extent that premiums arecharged for a future coverage period, data extracts based on the futureeffective date will allow billing in advance of the new coverage period.For each employee who requires no changes in current or future coverageperiod benefits an itemized breakdown of anticipated billing for the newcoverage period can be provided. A billing cycle generally hasanticipation component (e.g. elections for the new coverage period) anda correction component (e.g. for changes made since the last billingperiod). While the correction component can be determined based on thecurrent situation when a bill is prepared, the anticipation componentmust be determined by looking forward and calculating the bill based onthe new time period selected through effective dating.

A benefits plan may itself be effective dated. Changes to a plan can betreated like any other benefits-related event and therefore can beeffective dated. An election period that precedes a change in the planmay be associated with an effective dated event that can be derived fromthe effective date of the plan change. By configuring changes to theplan and enrollment periods as effective dated events, the administratoris given visibility to the actions related to the plan change. With theapplication of effective dating, mid-coverage year updates are moreeasily managed, tracked, and integrated. Precision is also significantlyimproved because all of the information is maintained for all time inthe model and can be retrieved based on setting a target effective datefor queries to the model.

The benefits administration management business application may performcoverage repair to ensure that changes that may impact coverage areproperly applied to all object versions and generations. In an exampleof coverage repair, if an employee declares an event in December, andthe employee has new benefits starting in January, the applicationadjusts the target date to the date of the December event and computesall benefit impacts based on rules in effect at that time. Theapplication then switches the target date to January when the newbenefits (and their associated rules) take effect, and computes anynecessary changes that propagate into the new plan year based on Januarybenefits rules and updates the future effective dated object versionaccordingly. In this way, the impact of an event that spans a currentand future coverage periods is properly accounted for and coverage isrepaired.

The benefits administration management business application may supportdecision-tree-based benefits eligibility selection. Benefits eligibilityselection may be based on a hierarchical decision tree structure thatsupports differentiated benefits within a corporate wide benefits plan.Unlike flattened plans that do not properly account for dependenciesbetween selections, decision-tree-based eligibility provided by theplatform 100 allows selection of various benefits and benefit plansthrough a structured process based on a decision tree.

Eligibility at each level of the tree may be based on a variety offactors that can be determined within the context of selections(decisions) already made by the employee. The application may usefactors such as employee status (exempt, non-exempt, union-represented),employee business unit, employee family criteria (single, married,married plus children), and the like to determine which selections tooffer at each decision point in the tree. In an example, union employeesmay have certain benefit options by virtue of a collective bargainingagreement and may not be eligible for other benefits; company officersmay be eligible for certain options that are not available to employeeswho are not company officers. Based on these and other factors, optionswill be presented to an employee making benefits selections.

The benefits administration business application may include a userinterface that presents election choices based on decision tree that isadapted based on the current user credentials and the decisions made bythe user. This approach does not limit the number of decision points,options to present at each decision point, or factors to consider indetermining eligibility. The user may make an initial election and thisinitial election may satisfy a prerequisite for offering the useradditional benefit elections.

The user interface of the benefits administration business applicationmay provide time-based graphical representations of data collection thatallows a user to view how benefits related information changes overtime. Because benefits information changes over time, a time-basedgraphical user interface may make understanding the information moreintuitive and understandable to the occasional user. Most employee usersof the benefits administration application are infrequent users becauseinteraction with benefits for administration or management purposesprimarily occurs after an event-based change (birth, death, transfer,etc.). Therefore the information presented in the user interface isconfigured for rapid understanding.

The user interface may represent benefits in the form of a timeline thatmay depict coverage over time and how it changes. As new plan yearapproaches, a timeline view of the enrollment periods and deadlines forentering changes may be much more impactful and beneficial to a userthan a list of dates. In addition, the benefits administrationapplication can provide alerts (notification) to a user regardingupcoming deadlines or due dates. The alerts may be configured so thatthey can be generated at specific times or relative to an event date.

Data entry in the user interface may also include real time inputvalidation so if the employee has entered incorrect or questionableinformation, feedback may be displayed immediately to the user so thatthe entry can be corrected while the user is still working on entriesrather than after a complete screen is loaded and a ‘next’ button isclicked. Data entry may also be automated so that information that isknown to the application can be preloaded into data fields to reduce thetime required for data entry and to reduce errors associated with dataentry.

The benefits administration business application includes anadministrator user interface that may provide every-day users with readyaccess to most often used features, such as employee search, acting onbehalf of the employee, coverage review, dependent data, past activity,and the like. Data may be presented in a timeline view that simplifiesunderstanding of events, changes, and the like that may impact benefits.The timeline view, when combined with effective dating may show useractivity for any period of time, such as an enrollment period thatoccurred prior to a new coverage period. The administrator userinterface may answer questions visually by allowing the user to specifyan event (a specific employee move), event type (dependent change for anemployee, enrollment period), date (last day of an enrollment period),and displaying all pertinent benefits information in proximity to thespecified event or date. In an example, a timeline view of an enrollmentperiod may depict the enrollment period and may show specific points ofuser interaction with the benefits administration and managementbusiness application. Details of the points of user interaction may beviewed by selecting one or more of the points. Details may include userlogin activity, user benefits review activity (e.g. which benefits werereviewed, which were elected, and the like), and user changes.

The administrator user interface may also facilitate requesting andpresenting plan migration or benefit enrolment reports that may showaggregated changes in plan selection or enrollment. These reports mayshow trends associated with plan membership, benefits optionsselections, and the like that may help in planning for offerings ofbenefit options in future coverage periods. In an example, after amerger of two companies, employee migration within the offered benefitsmay indicate that one or more plans or options are preferred overanother.

The user interface of the benefits administration application may beconfigured to present benefits information, receive user input, anddirect the user input to the functional modules of the platform,resulting in one or more updates of the information presented in theuser interface.

The benefits administration application user interface for inputting andpresenting benefits related information may be configured withadditional support screens for presenting information associated withbenefits planning and/or management. The support screens may presentinformation used to derive the data elsewhere, such as formulas, rules,guidelines, sources of information, pending information, and the like.The support screens may also facilitate inputting information that maybe used elsewhere in the benefits administration application, such as anemployee's social security number, or an employee's educational degree,and the like. This information may facilitate identifying the employeewho is the subject of the benefits planning activity. Information suchas the number of employees having similar job functions, their averagebenefits cost, and the like are other examples of support screeninformation.

The present invention relates to an enrollment and management system foreligibility-based human resource benefits administration that may beused by an employee in a self-service operation. A human resourcemanagement system may enable employees to view and perform functionsrelated to benefits administration through a user interface featuringusability and presentation features to facilitate the employee'sexperience. The user interface may be used to access, modify, and reviewemployee benefits. Data feeding into the human resource managementsystem may be accessed from a database. The database may be a dataaccess persistence database. The benefits administration application maybe capable of organizing and displaying time-sensitive changes. Forexample, employees may be able to examine benefits eligibility andcoverage data as well as other human resource attributes at any point intime, either forward or back in time, instead of only at a single pointin time or the current point in time. The benefits administrationapplication may access data for any effective date and obtain anaccurate view of what the employee was eligible for during that periodand what elections the employee had made during that period. Thebenefits administration application may include a data integrationprocessing component that may receive data from the employer and othersources that may be relevant to functions in benefits administration.Data may be effective-dated at various levels of aggregation, and thecomponent may reconcile these data with existing data to maintainbenefits coverage consistent with the merged data over time. Datarelating to employees, dependents, beneficiaries, benefits eligibility,event processing rules, current enrollments, payroll contributions, andthe like may entered into the system through the user interface. Thedata integration processing may also enable creating and formatting datato send to other parties, such as employers, carriers, COBRA processors,and the like.

Referring to FIG. 10, a welcome screen of the benefits administrationapplication may comprise notices relating to benefits coverage, such asa notification of open enrollment, with an option to take actionrelating to the notice. The welcome screen may comprise a timeline forvarious benefits actions to be taken, reviewed, cancelled, that arepending, and the like. Certain qualifying life events may present theopportunity to modify a benefits enrollment or coverage status. From thewelcome screen, an employee may have the option of declaring a lifeevent or perform enrollment activities related to a previously declaredevent. Other options accessible through the welcome screen may compriseaccess to current benefits, employee profile, beneficiary management,dependent management, wellness center voluntary programs such asvoluntary insurance and discount programs, common forms, summary plandescriptions, carrier information, and frequently asked questions andthe like. Throughout the application, instructions may appear on thescreen being accessed. The instruction screens may be editable,personalized, configurable, and the like.

Clicking on the ‘employee profile’ may display a screen displaying theprofile associated with a user login as shown in FIG. 11. The profilemay include information such as name, address, phone number, emailaddress, job title, location, union, gender, payroll frequency, hiringdata, identification (ID) of the user, present status of the user,department ID, division ID, participation group and the like.

Clicking on the ‘beneficiary management’ link may display thebeneficiary maintenance information on the screen as shown in FIG. 12.The beneficiary information presented on the screen may beedited/updated using an action button that may allow update of theexisting beneficiary information. Further, the allocation percentage foreach beneficiary benefit may be defined for each beneficiary by enteringan appropriate number. For example, the beneficiary information may beselected for a basic life insurance, accidental death & dismembermentinsurance, supplemental life insurance, business travel & accidentinsurance, 401k and the like.

The screen may include a drop-down menu for adding a beneficiary and/orselecting a beneficiary type such as a person, trust, estate, charityand the like. Clicking the ‘Add Beneficiary/Allocation’ button mayresult in a new screen having a form for entering data corresponding tothe beneficiary. The data may include name, federal tax ID,establishment date, country, address line 1, address 2, city, state, zipcode, email, and the like. The data can be submitted by clicking on thesubmit button.

The ‘dependent management’ link, when clicked displays a new screen asshown in FIG. 13. This screen displays dependence maintenance data thatincludes the particulars of the dependents associated with the user. Forexample, the dependent maintenance data may include name, relationship,birth date, medical, dental and some other type of data. An Action tabon the dependent maintenance screen allows editing of dependentmaintenance data, when required.

The welcome screen includes a link to a ‘wellness center’ having linksto information about health. Clicking on this link results in anotherscreen as shown in FIG. 14. The screen displays a number of linksrelated to health improvement. For example, the display screen mayinclude links to other screens such as Healthy You, Healthy RiskAssessment, Coverage Adviser, and the like which may present otherscreens displaying information about health and other health relatedarticles.

Clicking on the ‘FSA manager’ link may display a list of additionallinks on the screen that may include the FSA manager, FSA savingcalculator, debit cards and the like as shown in FIG. 15. The FSAmanager may initiate another screen that shows account information suchas account name, status balance and the like. Likewise, the FSA managermay list recent claims activity such as claim ID, vendor/provider, dateof service claim, amount paid, amount status and the like. Similarlyclicking on the FSA register may display screens corresponding to theFSA register. Clicking on the debit card link may provide informationassociated with the use of credit card for health payments.

The welcome screen may include a ‘voluntary programs’ link and clickingon this link may display information related to voluntary programs anddiscounts as shown in FIG. 16. The screen may list the availablevoluntary programs and the discount schemes available to the user. Forexample, VIP pet insurance, 1-800 flowers, auto discounts and some othertype of information.

Referring to FIG. 17, a user clicking on ‘common forms’ may access ascreen view of common forms available to the employee with links todirectly download a form to the user's computer. For example, the formsmay relate to 401K fast facts, a dental implants brochure, an insurancecarrier summary, an insurance carrier rollover maximum, a disableddependent affidavit, a domestic partner affidavit, an election waiverform, evidence of insurability, health insurance responsibilitydisclosure form, and the like.

Referring to FIG. 18, clicking on ‘current benefits’ may access a screenview of the employee's current benefits. Current benefits may includeemployee paid pre-tax benefits, employee paid post-tax benefits,employer paid benefits, and the like. For each benefit, option orcoverage level, effective start date, cost, pre-tax cost, post-tax cost,and the like may be listed. In addition, a print button may be providedto facilitate the printing of status of current benefits on a paper.

Referring to FIG. 19, which depicts a screen for declaring a life event,from the welcome screen (e.g. as shown in FIG. 10), a life event may bedeclared. Qualifying life events may include the birth of a child,adoption, divorce, marriage, loss of other coverage, death of adependent, and the like. The life event may be chosen from a drop-downmenu, and the like.

In FIG. 20, an event date is entered or chosen from a date pickercorresponding to when the qualifying life event occurred. Notificationsmay be provided as to what actions may be taken and what is requiredfrom the employee in light of the qualifying life event. In anembodiment, the employee may be able to add a newborn child to existingmedical insurance coverage, modify beneficiary information, increaseflexible spending or health care reimbursement withholding, and thelike. In an embodiment, a timetable or deadline for changes may begiven. In an embodiment, declaring a life event may require providingsupporting documentation. For example, declaring a birth may requiresubmission of a copy of the birth certificate. Once the life event hasbeen declared, the employee may enroll the new dependent. In anembodiment, the employee may be brought to an enrollment preview screen,such as in FIG. 21.

FIG. 22 illustrates a first screen of an enrollment process. The screendisplays an option button to confirm the consumption of tobacco by theuser in the last 30 days. The user may click on either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’option for proceeding to the next step of enrollment.

FIG. 23 depicts an enrollment screen for the benefits administrationapplication that is part of the enrollment process started in FIG. 22.In this embodiment, enrollment may proceed in four steps as describedhere and above. Each step may be clearly laid out and described with itsown phrase. In this example, Step 1 of enrollment involves confirmationfrom a user about the consumption of tobacco in last 30 days, Step 2involves reviewing information of the current election, Step 3 involvesmaking elections, and Step 4 involves review and confirmation ofelections. Reviewing information may include reviewing currentelections, reviewing dependents, reviewing beneficiaries, and the like.For example, when reviewing dependents in FIG. 24, a listing may showall current dependents with their name, relationship to the employee,birth date, dependent coverage, and the like. The employee may reviewthe current election as shown in FIG. 23. Further, the employee may havethe option of editing dependent information, removing a dependent,adding a dependent, and the like. Selecting the option to add adependent may access a screen for adding dependent information, as inFIG. 25.

Dependent information added may include name, birth date, socialsecurity number, gender, relationship to the employee, student status,disability status, address, and the like. The address field may beauto-filled with the employer's address to save time in adding thedependent. The dependent information form, as well as all forms withinthe benefits administration application, may feature instant validation.Instead of having to submit the form in order to determine if any errorshave been made in data entry, an auto-validation feature provides anindication that an error has been made by providing a signal at thefield containing the error. For example, a social security numbermissing the ninth digit may cause the field to be highlighted. Inanother example, if the gender is indicated as male but the relationshipselected is daughter, one or both of the fields may be highlighted orotherwise signaled as containing an error. Alternatively, a selection of“daughter” may invalidate the gender option “male” so that it is notselectable. Validation rules may govern form-checking and error alerts.A callout box for describing the validation error, as shown in FIG. 26,as well as a method for correcting the error may accompany the signalprovided at the field.

Referring to FIG. 27, once dependent information has been successfullyinput, a review your dependents screen may be shown. In this example, anew dependent has been added but neither dependent has medical or dentalcoverage. This screen may provide the option to review beneficiaries.

Selecting to review beneficiaries may access the beneficiaries' page ofthe enrollment step, as in FIG. 28. Beneficiaries may be added forbenefits such as basic life insurance, accidental death anddismemberment insurance, supplemental life insurance, disabilityinsurance, business travel and accident insurance, 401K, and the like.Beneficiaries may be a person, trust, estate, charity, foundation,university, and the like. Any current beneficiaries may be viewed in thelisting of beneficiaries, which may include beneficiary name, birthdate, social security number, beneficiary type, beneficiary allocation,and the like. To add a beneficiary, the beneficiary type may be selectedand beneficiary information may be added, as in FIG. 29. Certainbeneficiary information, such as address, may be supplied without needto re-enter. Alternatively, beneficiaries may be selected from among thedependent pool. Referring now to FIG. 30, once the beneficiary has beenadded, a beneficiary type and an allocation may be assigned to thebeneficiary or beneficiaries. The beneficiary type may be primary orsecondary, and allocation may be anything from zero to 100%. Totalallocation for all beneficiaries must not exceed 100%. If the allocationdoes exceed 100%, the auto-validation feature will highlight theallocation field alerting the employee that a correction should be made.

Referring to FIG. 31, the third step of the enrollment process may bemaking benefits elections. Elections may be made for medical coverage,dental coverage, vision coverage, supplemental life insurance, dependentlife insurance, flexible spending accounts, employer paid benefits, andthe like. In an embodiment, the employee may choose coverage fromeligible possibilities.

Selecting medical coverage may access a medical coverage electionsscreen, as in FIG. 32. Elections may be eligibility-based. For example,the employee may choose to waive coverage or they may choose from atleast one option for medical insurance. The costs for the medicalinsurance plans may be displayed to the employee for various coveragetypes, such as employee only, employee plus one, family plan, and thelike. When the employee selects a plan and coverage type, an alert mayindicate which dependents would be eligible for coverage under theselection. For example, an outline box may appear around the eligibledependents. The employee may then select which dependents to include inthe elected coverage. Selecting dental and vision coverage may proceedin a similar fashion. In the example of FIG. 32, the employee medicaltimeline 3202 shows medical coverage starting Jan. 1, 2009.

Referring now to FIG. 33, a timeline may show a change upon election ofcoverage. In this example, the timeline 3302 shows the employee changedcoverage on the election date of Jan. 1, 2010. The timeline may providea way to navigate benefits over a period of time prior to the currenttime period or after the current time period. For example, selecting theportion of the timeline prior to the current time period may change thedisplay to show what the benefits elections were during the time periodselected.

Referring to FIG. 34, a selection page for supplemental life insuranceis shown. Options for supplemental life insurance may be selected by theemployee, such as waived, one times the salary, twice the salary, aspecific dollar figure, and the like. The cost for each option may beindicated along with any requirements, such as submission of anaccompanying evidence of insurability form. Referring to FIG. 35, thetimeline depicts a pending change to the supplemental life insuranceelection. A notification alerts the employee that coverage may bepending awaiting submission of the evidence of insurability form.

Referring to FIG. 36, a flexible spending accounts selection screen isshown. Tools, such as a link to the carrier website may be present onthe screen. Flexible spending accounts may include a healthcare spendingaccount, a dependent care spending account, and the like. Each kind ofaccount may have its own coverage timeline. For each account, minimumallowed amounts, maximum allowed amounts, current year contribution,past year contribution, and future year contribution may be shown. Theemployee may modify the future year contribution.

FIG. 37 depicts a view of an employer paid benefits page showingbenefits and any associated options. Employer paid benefits may includeshort-term disability, long-term disability, basic life insurance,accidental death & dismemberment insurance, supplemental life insurance,business travel and accident insurance, 401K, employee assistanceprogram, tuition benefits, and the like. The associated options shown onthe employer paid benefits page may include the level of coverage, andthe like.

Referring to FIG. 38, the fourth step of the enrollment process may bereviewing and confirming elected benefits. The timeline may depictbenefit elections per event, such as a life event, an open enrollmentevent, and the like. The section of the timeline that is filled in mayrepresent the time in which the elections below will be in effect. Theuser may click on any other portion of the time line, and the data belowmay be adjusted to display the benefits in effect at that time. This maygive employees an opportunity to make comparisons and make betterdecisions about their benefits elections. Elections may be shown alongwith coverage level, effective start date, cost, applicable dependentsor beneficiaries, and the like. The benefits may be categorized byemployee pre-tax paid benefits, employee post-tax paid benefits,employer paid benefits, and the like. The total cost for all benefitsmay be shown as well as a breakdown of post-tax and pre-tax costs. Anypending requirements, such as requirement for submission of a form tosupport an election, may be indicated on the review page. An option forconfirming the elections may be selected by the employee who may accessa confirmation screen, as in FIG. 39. The confirmation screen displays asignal of successful submission of elections and may provide options forprinting the elections, returning to the welcome screen, logging out,and the like. The employee may be notified of any pending requirements,such as requirement for submission of a form to support an election. Inan embodiment, the forms may be downloaded from the confirmation screen.

Referring to FIG. 40, if the employee selects returning to the welcomescreen, the new pending life event that was submitted for approval maybe shown. The employee may have the opportunity to make changes to thelife event and any accompany elections and changes. The ability to makechanges may be limited by applicable rules, which may be configured orbuilt into the benefits administration application.

Referring to FIG. 41, an administrator logging in to the benefitsadministration application may have additional administrative toolsaccessible from the welcome screen. For example, administrative toolsmay include searches such as employee search, EOI search, event search;reports section that may include generation of reports for new hireemployees reporting, dependent age out reporting, census reporting,output file statistics reporting, output file count reporting,enrollment statistics reporting, enrollment transaction reporting, inputfile statistics reporting, benefit election summary reporting,enrollment statistics reporting, plan migration reporting and the like.In addition, the welcome screen may include buttons for creating customreports, manage reports and the like. Additional links for premiumreporting, resources such as COBRA administration may also be providedon the welcome screen. Furthermore, other options accessible through thewelcome screen may comprise access to current benefits, employeeprofile, beneficiary management, dependent management, wellness centreaccess to voluntary programs such as voluntary insurance and discountprograms, common forms, summary plan descriptions carrier information,and frequently asked questions, and the like as described earlier.

Referring to FIG. 42, clicking on the employee search link may initiatea form for entering details of an employee to be searched. The searchform may include first name, last name, SSN, employee id, and the like.A search button may be provided for initiating the search after enteringthe required criteria for search. The display screen may provide aplurality of text boxes; one for performing quick search and the otherfor performing advanced search.

Referring to FIG. 43 a, selecting the EOI search option may bring theadministrator to an EOI search screen. The administrator may search byname, social security number, employee ID, status, benefit, event, startdates, end dates, date range, and the like. Similarly, selecting theemployee search option may bring the administrator to an employee searchscreen. The administrator may search by name, social security number,employee ID, and the like. Once an employee is identified, theadministrator may approve or reject events or require additionalevidence or information. A pending change approval of the electedbenefits may search from the EOI screen as shown in FIG. 43 b. Inaddition, the administrator may initiate an advanced search for listingall the employees that may have a pending approval as shown in FIG. 43c. In embodiments, a date range may be selected from the calendar torestrict the EOI search based on a date range. For example, theadministrator may enter a date range from Oct. 10, 2008 to Oct. 20,2008. The date range may be entered by selecting this date range fromthe calendar that may be provided on the screen as shown in FIG. 43 d.

An event search for searching a particular event may be initiated by theadministrator as shown in FIG. 44. For example, the search form mayallow the administrator to enter data corresponding to a particularemployee for searching a particular event associated with the user. Thesearch form may include fields such as first name, last name, socialsecurity number, employee ID, status, event having an event occurrencedates, event declaration dates and the like. A search button and acancel button may be provided for either executing the search orcanceling the search.

Referring to FIG. 45, an administrator enrollment statistics report mayinclude benefit type, the benefit, data range, option, event, thecoverage level, how many employees elected the benefit, employee status,department, division how many employees were eligible, the electedpercent, and the like. The enrollment statistics interface mayfacilitate filtering/restricting/customizing the search based on one ormore of the following criteria including a range, a benefit, an option,a coverage level, an event, an employee status, a department, a divisionand the like.

Referring to FIG. 46, an administrator new hire report may includeemployee ID, name, date of hire, days remaining, election start date,election end date, last election date, location, department, division,company, division, union, cost center email address and the like. Inaddition, the new hire report may be filtered/restricted/limitedaccording to one or more of a hire date, a location, a department, acompany, a division, a union, a cost center and the like. A link forchanging parameters may present a form forcustomization/filtering/restricting of report according to one or moreof the above parameters.

Referring to FIG. 47, a dependent age out report may be initiated by anadministrator that may include attributes such as sub full name, ID,department full name, age, birth date, benefit option, age outage,location union, email and the like. The dependent age out report mayalso include a link for changing parameters of the report forcustomization/filtering/restricting the dependent age out reportaccording to one or more parameters such as group type, ID, benefitoption, location, department, company, division, union, cost center andthe like as shown in FIG. 48. In addition, each of the report may bereport columns may be sorted according to one or more columns eachreport may be resorted by one or more columns by clicking on the columnheaders or by selecting a “sort/filter” feature located in each columnheader.

The welcome page may include a link to a census report and clicking onthis may display a screen as shown in the FIG. 49. The report may enablean administrator to view a snapshot of benefit enrollment data for thefull or partial benefits eligible population. The report may include aname, a run date, a completed date, a status, an action and the like.Additionally, the report may also include a change parameter link thatmay initiate a web form for changing/filtering the census report basedon parameters such as report date, location, department, companydivision, union, cost center and the like as shown in FIG. 50.

Referring to FIG. 51, out file statistics report may be provided to theadministrator to assess the number of statements, or other output filesgenerated within a given date range. The report may include a statementtype, a name, an employee SSN, an employee ID, a lot name, an eventname, a counter run date and the like. As described earlier the reportinterface may include a change parameter link forfiltering/customizing/modifying the report based on one or moreparameters such as a statement date range, a statement type, a firstname, a last name, an employee ID, an employee SSN and the like.

Referring to FIG. 52, the output file count report may enable theadministrator to see the output file reporting statistics that maycomprise of a statement type, a run date, a lot count and the like.Furthermore, as described earlier, the output file reporting may becustomized on one or more parameters such as statement type, statementdate range and the like.

FIG. 53 depicts a screen for input statistics report generated by theadministrator. The input statistics report may include an input filetype, a start time, an end time and the like.

Referring to FIG. 54, the administrator may be able to generate a reportfor type of enrollment in an enrollment transaction report. For example,user may be logged by Web, by HR admin, enrolled by web, or enrolled byvia HR admin or CSR. The report may include statistics in form of data5402 and/or in form of chart 5404. The attributes of report may includenot enrolled, enrolled, enrolled by web, enrolled by HR/CSR and thelike. The chart display may include line charts as shown in FIG. 55.

FIG. 56 illustrates a screen for displaying benefit election summaryreport produced by the administrator for various types of electionsincluding medical, dental, supplemental life and the like. The benefitelection summary report may filtered/restricted on one or more attributeincluding date range, benefit, option, coverage level, event, employeestatus, department, division and the like.

Referring to FIG. 57, the plan migration report may be generated by theadministrator to see the changes made by employees in various insuranceplans, medical plans, dental plans and the like. The plan migrationreport may include a changed from, a changed to, employees who changes,a percentage of total changes and the like. For example, the employeemay change from a buy up plan to buy up option plan, which change inplan may be provided in the plan migration report.

Referring to FIG. 58, the administrator may create a custom report asper requirement. The custom report may be created from subscriberattributes, employee attributes, dependent attributes, employee benefitattributes, work life events, dependent benefit attributes, dependentage-out attributes and the like. Furthermore, each attribute may includea plurality of parameters as described above in this application. It maybe noted that one or more parameters may be selected from each of thesubscriber attributes, employee attributes, dependent attributes,employee benefit attributes, work life events, dependent benefitattributes, dependent age-out attributes and the like and may be addedto textbox 5802. In addition, another textbox 5804 to configureparameters may allow the selected parameters to be dragged here forincluding in the report. Another Textbox report name may be provided forentering the name of the custom report.

Referring to FIG. 59, a manage report link may allow the administratorto manage the available reports. The available report may be listed byname or any other parameter. Further, a create report button may beprovided for creating a new customized report.

Referring to FIG. 60, premium billing report may be generated by theadministrator. The premium billing reports may be arranged in thefolder. For example, folder may be arranged year-wise, and within theyear further broken down, such as by month.

Referring to FIG. 61, an audit screen of all business transaction andevent elections may comprise events, changes as of today, and the like.The human resource management system enables an administrator to view anemployee's data and coverage changes over time, focusing in on certaintypes of information and the events that introduced changes.

FIG. 62 depicts election changes that occurred in association with aparticular event. Details of sessions and submissions are displayed whenthe same is selected from the event timeline.

FIG. 63 depicts a coverage timeline view showing selected coveragechanges over time for an individual event. In the timeline may bepresented, such basic life, dental, medical, supplemental life, and thelike.

Referring to FIG. 64, an annual enrollment screen may provide thelisting of the dependents. The listing may include the name,relationship, birth date, and the like. In addition, the listing mayinclude different types of benefits such as medical, dental, and thelike.

It should be understood that any action or function described herein maybe performed by an employee in a self-service operation, by anadministrator, by a third party, and the like, unless otherwiseindicated.

The benefits application user interface may facilitate planning and/ormanaging benefits for a single employee or a plurality of employees. Theplurality of employees may be related through one or more of thefollowing, without limitation—employee attributes, such as title,aspects of coverage, department, location, business unit or division,responsibilities, years of service, manager, services received, employeeemployment status, and the like. An employee employment status mayinclude, without limitation, one or more of full-time, part time,hourly, exempt, permanent, temporary, direct, contract, and othercharacterizations of status such as active, inactive, retired, and thelike.

The user interface, or one or more portions of the user interface, maybe based on computer programming technology including without limitationJAVA, JAVASCRIPT, ADOBE FLASH, ADOBE FLEX a combination thereof, or acombination of one or more thereof and other computer programminglanguages, constructs, technology, images, graphics, menus, and thelike.

The human resource management platform 100 may provide facilities forintegrating information from a variety of sources including enterprisebusiness systems, such as planning, budgeting, accounting, organizationmanagement, and the like. Information may be provided to the humanresource management platform 100 to update the relevant data in thehuman resource management platform 100. In an embodiment of theinvention, information from external business and other systems may beintegrated on a regular basis, such as each day. Facilities forintegrating this information may provide synchronization capabilitiesthat may allow a user/enterprise to detect changes in informationreceived for integration and to decide how the data in the platformreacts to the detected changes in the information.

The benefits administration business application may facilitatesupporting “what-if” scenario assessment. In the benefits space pendingdata may be applicable because decisions that are made today may requireapproval before the change can be effective. Therefore, such decisionsresult in a pending approval state, such as a pending event. Pendingevents may be incorporated into a future view of the model (e.g. bysetting a future target effective date for the application). However,the changes are separate from the ‘current state’ until they areapproved so that they are not used in activities that access data (past,present, or future) before the state is approved such as sending currentdata to the suppliers of these benefits. In an example of thiscombination of effective dating and a pending event for a benefitsadministration application, an employee may elect to increase lifeinsurance coverage on a first date. However, the election must beapproved so the date that the election is made becomes a pendingeffective date for the election. Until the change is approved, thecurrent coverage is unchanged and the premiums deducted from theemployee's paycheck are unchanged. Once the change is approved, thecoverage effective date may be any of the earlier election date, theapproval date, or a future date such as the beginning of the nextbilling cycle or the next calendar month. The higher coverage effectivedate may be determined based on business logic associated with thechange. If the higher coverage effective date is a future date, thehigher coverage is associated with the future effective date so thatwhen the calendar date passes the coverage effective date, the coverageis effective. Alternatively, the target effective date can be changed tobe after the future effective date of the higher coverage so thatpremium deductions can be adjusted for an upcoming payroll cycle thatmatches to the future effective date of the higher coverage.

In an example, benefits data integration using the data synchronizationfacilities described herein may be part of regularly run process inwhich the platform 100 receives a stream of updated data. To facilitateproper and effective integration of externally provided data, a set ofinput data may be a complete set of data, or a partial set with optionaleffective dating for various parts of the data. The input file processmerges the input data into the persisted, effective dated domain modelafter performing coverage repair to ensure data integrity andconsistency with the benefits administration and platform businessrules. The input file process performs a reconciliation process todetermine the changes in the received data. The reconciliation processmay include comparing received data to data existing in the platform toinfer the occurrence of benefits events.

Even pending benefits approval notification/authorization, which may bepart of an approval workflow, has to be tracked and modified based onchanges detected in the input data so that the impact of these detectedchanges is properly managed. Changes received in input files or userinteraction on a web-based application may impact benefits or giveopportunity to make new elections. In some cases eligibility can beaffected such as if an employee changes from one business unit in acorporation to another business unit that has different benefits orrules. The coverage repair facilities of the platform 100 mayautomatically process these changes.

The coverage repair capabilities of the platform 100 may be associatedwith a benefits administration management business application. Coveragerepair as described herein may facilitate recalculating decisionsassociated with benefit elections that have a future effective date whenchanges introduced into the platform 100 impact the future elections. Inan example, in November an employee elects benefits to be effective inJanuary. These benefits may be coded with an effective date in Januaryso the current coverage period is not impacted by these benefitselections. In December the employee adds a family member to his currentbenefit plan after the birth of a child. Although the elections made inNovember that will be effective in January do not include the additionalfamily member, when data including the additional family member isreceived by the platform, the coverage repair facilities of theplatform, in conjunction with the business rules and dependency logic ofthe benefits administration business application may automaticallyrecalculate the coverage for the new coverage period (that starts inJanuary) based on the additional family member. This recalculation mayresult in the benefit election being automatically changed to includethe additional dependent so that the benefits provided in the newcoverage period in January will include the additional dependent.

In a variation of the above example, in December an employee moves to adifferent state that requires a different health care provider. Wheninput file processing receives the new employee address, it recognizesthis as a move event, and coverage repair makes any necessaryadjustments to coverage from the date of the move up to the new planyear under the current plan rules, and then makes corrections oradjustments based on that new address into the new plan year under itsrules. As a result, the employee's earlier election of a health careprovider is repaired, or kept conformant to the rules, even if thatrequired a switch of benefits providers based on service areas. Coveragerepair will determine what business logic and/or update rules apply toan address change and apply those rules to the election decision. Theresult may be that a default benefit option is elected. Alternatively,the benefit option to which the employee has switched in the currentperiod as a result of the move may become the default benefit option forthe new coverage period.

The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or inwhole through a machine that executes computer software, program codes,and/or instructions on a processor. The processor may be part of aserver, client, network infrastructure, mobile computing platform,stationary computing platform, or other computing platform. A processormay be any kind of computational or processing device capable ofexecuting program instructions, codes, binary instructions and the like.The processor may be or include a signal processor, digital processor,embedded processor, microprocessor or any variant such as a co-processor(math co-processor, graphic co-processor, communication co-processor andthe like) and the like that may directly or indirectly facilitateexecution of program code or program instructions stored thereon. Inaddition, the processor may enable execution of multiple programs,threads, and codes. The threads may be executed simultaneously toenhance the performance of the processor and to facilitate simultaneousoperations of the application. By way of implementation, methods,program codes, program instructions and the like described herein may beimplemented in one or more thread. The thread may spawn other threadsthat may have assigned priorities associated with them; the processormay execute these threads based on priority or any other order based oninstructions provided in the program code. The processor may includememory that stores methods, codes, instructions and programs asdescribed herein and elsewhere. The processor may access a storagemedium through an interface that may store methods, codes, andinstructions as described herein and elsewhere. The storage mediumassociated with the processor for storing methods, programs, codes,program instructions or other type of instructions capable of beingexecuted by the computing or processing device may include but may notbe limited to one or more of a CD-ROM, DVD, memory, hard disk, flashdrive, RAM, ROM, cache and the like.

A processor may include one or more cores that may enhance speed andperformance of a multiprocessor. In embodiments, the process may be adual core processor, quad core processors, other chip-levelmultiprocessor and the like that combine two or more independent cores(called a die).

The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or inwhole through a machine that executes computer software on a server,client, firewall, gateway, hub, router, or other such computer and/ornetworking hardware. The software program may be associated with aserver that may include a file server, print server, domain server,internet server, intranet server and other variants such as secondaryserver, host server, distributed server and the like. The server mayinclude one or more of memories, processors, computer readable media,storage media, ports (physical and virtual), communication devices, andinterfaces capable of accessing other servers, clients, machines, anddevices through a wired or a wireless medium, and the like. The methods,programs or codes as described herein and elsewhere may be executed bythe server. In addition, other devices required for execution of methodsas described in this application may be considered as a part of theinfrastructure associated with the server.

The server may provide an interface to other devices including, withoutlimitation, clients, other servers, printers, database servers, printservers, file servers, communication servers, distributed servers andthe like. Additionally, this coupling and/or connection may facilitateremote execution of program across the network. The networking of someor all of these devices may facilitate parallel processing of a programor method at one or more location without deviating from the scope ofthe invention. In addition, any of the devices attached to the serverthrough an interface may include at least one storage medium capable ofstoring methods, programs, code and/or instructions. A centralrepository may provide program instructions to be executed on differentdevices. In this implementation, the remote repository may act as astorage medium for program code, instructions, and programs.

The software program may be associated with a client that may include afile client, print client, domain client, internet client, intranetclient and other variants such as secondary client, host client,distributed client and the like. The client may include one or more ofmemories, processors, computer readable media, storage media, ports(physical and virtual), communication devices, and interfaces capable ofaccessing other clients, servers, machines, and devices through a wiredor a wireless medium, and the like. The methods, programs or codes asdescribed herein and elsewhere may be executed by the client. Inaddition, other devices required for execution of methods as describedin this application may be considered as a part of the infrastructureassociated with the client.

The client may provide an interface to other devices including, withoutlimitation, servers, other clients, printers, database servers, printservers, file servers, communication servers, distributed servers andthe like. Additionally, this coupling and/or connection may facilitateremote execution of program across the network. The networking of someor all of these devices may facilitate parallel processing of a programor method at one or more location without deviating from the scope ofthe invention. In addition, any of the devices attached to the clientthrough an interface may include at least one storage medium capable ofstoring methods, programs, applications, code and/or instructions. Acentral repository may provide program instructions to be executed ondifferent devices. In this implementation, the remote repository may actas a storage medium for program code, instructions, and programs.

The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or inwhole through network infrastructures. The network infrastructure mayinclude elements such as computing devices, servers, routers, hubs,firewalls, clients, personal computers, communication devices, routingdevices and other active and passive devices, modules and/or componentsas known in the art. The computing and/or non-computing device(s)associated with the network infrastructure may include, apart from othercomponents, a storage medium such as flash memory, buffer, stack, RAM,ROM and the like. The processes, methods, program codes, instructionsdescribed herein and elsewhere may be executed by one or more of thenetwork infrastructural elements.

The methods, program codes, and instructions described herein andelsewhere may be implemented on a cellular network having multiplecells. The cellular network may either be frequency division multipleaccess (FDMA) network or code division multiple access (CDMA) network.The cellular network may include mobile devices, cell sites, basestations, repeaters, antennas, towers, and the like. The cell networkmay be a GSM, GPRS, 3G, EVDO, mesh, or other networks types.

The methods, programs codes, and instructions described herein andelsewhere may be implemented on or through mobile devices. The mobiledevices may include navigation devices, cell phones, mobile phones,mobile personal digital assistants, laptops, palmtops, netbooks, pagers,electronic books readers, music players and the like. These devices mayinclude, apart from other components, a storage medium such as a flashmemory, buffer, RAM, ROM and one or more computing devices. Thecomputing devices associated with mobile devices may be enabled toexecute program codes, methods, and instructions stored thereon.Alternatively, the mobile devices may be configured to executeinstructions in collaboration with other devices. The mobile devices maycommunicate with base stations interfaced with servers and configured toexecute program codes. The mobile devices may communicate on a peer topeer network, mesh network, or other communications network. The programcode may be stored on the storage medium associated with the server andexecuted by a computing device embedded within the server. The basestation may include a computing device and a storage medium. The storagedevice may store program codes and instructions executed by thecomputing devices associated with the base station.

The computer software, program codes, and/or instructions may be storedand/or accessed on machine readable media that may include: computercomponents, devices, and recording media that retain digital data usedfor computing for some interval of time; semiconductor storage known asrandom access memory (RAM); mass storage typically for more permanentstorage, such as optical discs, forms of magnetic storage like harddisks, tapes, drums, cards and other types; processor registers, cachememory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory; optical storage such asCD, DVD; removable media such as flash memory (e.g. USB sticks or keys),floppy disks, magnetic tape, paper tape, punch cards, standalone RAMdisks, Zip drives, removable mass storage, off-line, and the like; othercomputer memory such as dynamic memory, static memory, read/writestorage, mutable storage, read only, random access, sequential access,location addressable, file addressable, content addressable, networkattached storage, storage area network, bar codes, magnetic ink, and thelike.

The methods and systems described herein may transform physical and/oror intangible items from one state to another. The methods and systemsdescribed herein may also transform data representing physical and/orintangible items from one state to another.

The elements described and depicted herein, including in flow charts andblock diagrams throughout the figures, imply logical boundaries betweenthe elements. However, according to software or hardware engineeringpractices, the depicted elements and the functions thereof may beimplemented on machines through computer executable media having aprocessor capable of executing program instructions stored thereon as amonolithic software structure, as standalone software modules, or asmodules that employ external routines, code, services, and so forth, orany combination of these, and all such implementations may be within thescope of the present disclosure. Examples of such machines may include,but may not be limited to, personal digital assistants, laptops,personal computers, mobile phones, other handheld computing devices,medical equipment, wired or wireless communication devices, transducers,chips, calculators, satellites, tablet PCs, electronic books, gadgets,electronic devices, devices having artificial intelligence, computingdevices, networking equipments, servers, routers and the like.Furthermore, the elements depicted in the flow chart and block diagramsor any other logical component may be implemented on a machine capableof executing program instructions. Thus, while the foregoing drawingsand descriptions set forth functional aspects of the disclosed systems,no particular arrangement of software for implementing these functionalaspects should be inferred from these descriptions unless explicitlystated or otherwise clear from the context. Similarly, it will beappreciated that the various steps identified and described above may bevaried, and that the order of steps may be adapted to particularapplications of the techniques disclosed herein. All such variations andmodifications are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure.As such, the depiction and/or description of an order for various stepsshould not be understood to require a particular order of execution forthose steps, unless required by a particular application, or explicitlystated or otherwise clear from the context.

The methods and/or processes described above, and steps thereof, may berealized in hardware, software or any combination of hardware andsoftware suitable for a particular application. The hardware may includea general purpose computer and/or dedicated computing device or specificcomputing device or particular aspect or component of a specificcomputing device. The processes may be realized in one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, embedded microcontrollers,programmable digital signal processors or other programmable device,along with internal and/or external memory. The processes may also, orinstead, be embodied in an application specific integrated circuit, aprogrammable gate array, programmable array logic, or any other deviceor combination of devices that may be configured to process electronicsignals. It will further be appreciated that one or more of theprocesses may be realized as a computer executable code capable of beingexecuted on a machine readable medium.

The computer executable code may be created using a structuredprogramming language such as C, an object oriented programming languagesuch as C++, or any other high-level or low-level programming language(including assembly languages, hardware description languages, anddatabase programming languages and technologies) that may be stored,compiled or interpreted to run on one of the above devices, as well asheterogeneous combinations of processors, processor architectures, orcombinations of different hardware and software, or any other machinecapable of executing program instructions.

Thus, in one aspect, each method described above and combinationsthereof may be embodied in computer executable code that, when executingon one or more computing devices, performs the steps thereof. In anotheraspect, the methods may be embodied in systems that perform the stepsthereof, and may be distributed across devices in a number of ways, orall of the functionality may be integrated into a dedicated, standalonedevice or other hardware. In another aspect, the means for performingthe steps associated with the processes described above may include anyof the hardware and/or software described above. All such permutationsand combinations are intended to fall within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the preferredembodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications andimprovements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled inthe art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present invention isnot to be limited by the foregoing examples, but is to be understood inthe broadest sense allowable by law.

All documents referenced herein are hereby incorporated by reference.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: transmitting benefitsinformation from a server to a remote computing facility over a network;presenting the benefits information to a user in a user interface usingthe computing facility; receiving a response to the presented benefitsinformation; transmitting the response to the server; computing changesto the benefits information based on the response; and updating aserver-accessible domain model of the benefits based on the computedchanges.
 2. The method of claim 1, further including transmitting thechanges to the computing facility.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereintransmitting the benefits information from the server to the remotecomputing facility includes retrieving the benefits information from thedomain model.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein retrieving the benefitsinformation is based on a user identifier provided from the userinterface.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface runsusing FLASH technology.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the userinterface is built using FLEX technology.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the user is a benefits subscriber.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein the benefits information includes one or more of: employeeprofile data; beneficiary data; dependent data; benefit election data;benefit-related event data; employee health data; medical benefits;dental benefits; life insurance benefits; flexible spending accountdata; and employer paid benefits.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein thebenefits subscriber is an employee.
 10. The method of claim 7, whereinthe response impacts one or more of: employee profile data; beneficiarydata; dependent data; benefit election data; benefit-related event data;employee health data; medical benefits; dental benefits; life insurancebenefits; flexible spending account data; and employer paid benefits.11. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is a benefits administrator.12. The method of claim 11, wherein the benefits information includesone or more of: enrollment transaction trends; new hire enrollment data;employee search; event search; enrollment status; dependent age data;census data; benefit election data; medical benefit data; billing data;event timeline data; and employee attribute timeline data.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the response impacts one or more of:employee profile data; beneficiary data; dependent data; benefitelection data; benefit-related event data; employee health data; medicalbenefits; dental benefits; life insurance benefits; flexible spendingaccount data; and employer paid benefits.
 14. The method of claim 1,wherein the user interface displays an events timeline.
 15. A method,comprising: receiving at a first computing facility benefits informationrepresentative of employee benefits data stored in a benefits managementdomain model that is accessible through a persistence layer of a humancapital domain platform by a second computing facility; presenting thebenefits information in a user interface using a presentation layer ofthe human capital platform executing on the first computing facility;receiving user input to the user interface in response to the presentedbenefits information; and transmitting a benefit change descriptionbased on the user input to the second computing facility, wherein thebenefit change description comprises information that facilitatesupdating a domain object that comprises the employee benefits in thebenefits management domain model.
 16. The method of claim 15, whereinreceiving the benefits information is in response to the first computingfacility transmitting an employee identifier to the second computingfacility.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the benefit changedescription is in compliance with an employee benefits managementapplication that is capable of interacting with the benefits managementdomain model via the persistence layer.
 18. A system comprising: apersistence layer of a human capital domain platform for storingbenefits data for a plurality of employees in a benefits administrationdomain model; a user interface portion of a presentation layer of thehuman capital domain platform through which a user may access benefitsinformation in the benefits administration domain model; a businesslogic layer comprising a plurality of rules for accessing and updatingthe benefits administration domain model; and at least one employeebenefits management application adapted to receive user input from thepresentation layer and, based on at least one of the plurality of rulesof the business logic layer, update a domain object of the benefitsadministration domain model, wherein the domain object represents theuser accessible benefits information.
 19. The system of claim 18,wherein the persistence layer includes a database for storing thebenefits administration domain model.
 20. The system of claim 18,wherein the persistence layer includes security features for limitingaccess to a database containing the domain model.